


Flowers for the Dead

by Catch358



Category: Drag-On Dragoon | Drakengard, Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Crossover, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Enemies to Friends, perhaps, to lovers???
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:55:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 79,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24908752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catch358/pseuds/Catch358
Summary: The chaotic world of Midgard is ruled by Intoners, sisters whose songs unleash vast powers. Riku's search for Sora has him end up in Midgard where he meets the oldest of the Intoners, Zero, and is roped up into her quest of killing her own sisters.
Comments: 99
Kudos: 50





	1. "The End Will Begin"

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Square Enix, or anything associated with it. 
> 
> For newcomers, while this is a spin off to "NieR: Oblivion", you don't need to read that in order to understand what's going on in this story. Anyways, enjoy~
> 
> 'Zero'=thoughts
> 
> Zero= Narration

There was nothing like being surrounded by endless darkness. It was so cold yet so intimate, beautiful yet merciless all at once. At least that's how Riku felt during his frequent trips to the Realm of Darkness in search of Sora, but it was hard to find much appreciation when he was up to his neck fighting against the heartless most of the time. Today was no different of course, he killed a few neoshadows, took down another annoying demon tower. It was practically routine, but what threw him off was when black, snake-like tendrils emerged from the folds of darkness and coiled around his body.

"Hey what's—" They wrapped around his mouth too, muffling his words, then around his eyes, blacking out his ██████████████████████████████████████████████

* * *

_This is the story of six sisters in a world protected by the power of song_

_and a young man who tried to save that very world from ruin._

_..._

_Those who have the misfortune to come upon this tale_

_will soon realize that nothing is more unforgiving than the world we live in._

"—Don't tell me this one's already out cold."

"I believe he's just sleeping, sir!"

"Then wake his ass up! We need all hands on deck to protect Lady Five!"

Riku woke up to a soldier clad in heavy armor shaking his shoulders, he quickly pushed him off then stood up, rubbing his head. "...where am I?"

"You better suit up and prepare yourself for battle before the Intoner arrives or you're screwed!"

"What? I'm just a passerby looking for a friend so leave me out of this."

"Like that's gonna stop her! Unlike our lovely Lady Five, this Intoner's a vicious monster. She kills anyone who gets in her way, then turns them into black demons just for her own sadistic pleasure!"

"Wait...black demons?" Riku crossed his arms, deciding on what he should do. ' _I'm sure he's talking about the heartless, so is this 'Intoner' person stealing their hearts? It wouldn't hurt to stick around and find out.'_ "Alright fine, I'll make sure she won't be causing you guys any more trouble, but can you fill me in on what an 'Intoner' is first, I'm not from around here."

"Huh, and here I thought everyone was knowledgeable of them. No matter, the Intoners are basically goddesses that live among us mortals. In my humble opinion, our Lady Five, the ruler of this land, is the most beautiful, benevolent being out of all of them."

 _'That really didn't answer my question, I'll just drop it for now to avoid any suspicion.'_ "Right...good to know."

"In any case, we appreciate the help! We're going to have to take you to the armory at once, a shirt and some slacks won't protect against getting stabbed by a sharp blade."

"Don't need it." He summoned his keyblade; 'Braveheart'. The sleek, silver blade held within it immense strength that embodied the name it carried.

"Your confidence is reassuring, if not slightly worrying, but we're brothers in arms now so I got your back!" He put his hand on Riku's shoulder. "By the way, name's Basch. You?"

"Riku."

"Alright Riku, don't forget, once we kill that intoner once and for all, we'll be graced by the beautiful Lady Five's presence!"

"I'm thrilled," He said in a flat tone.

"That's the spirit! I should get back to training, join me if you'd like, but I have a feeling you don't need it."

They parted ways, leaving Riku with more questions than answers. As he wandered out around the makeshift military base camp, he tried to make sense of the world he found himself in. His wandering eventually led him to the seaside where he could see a battleship floating in the still water, preparing for an incoming enemy strike.

Unlike the soldiers scrambling around to prepare for the so-called 'vicious' Intoner to attack their camp, Riku sat idly down by the shore, enjoying the scent of salt-infused air and the soft wail of the ocean he was already starting to feel nostalgic for. ' _I think this world is supposed to work like a kingdom. Lady Five's the princess the soldiers are trying to protect and this other Intoner, whatever that is, is supposed to be the bad guy. Same crap different world, still no sign of Sora though.'_

Those few peaceful moments stood out to him because from the moment the Intoner infiltrated their camp, to the rest of his days in the world, he would never know calmness like that again. It all happened in quick succession, first came the triumphant battle cries from the soldiers, followed by screaming and wailing from those same soldiers getting slaughtered like pigs.

Riku rushed over to the fray, which looked more like a massacre than a battlefield, and tried to locate the Intoner amidst the chaos. _'Where is she? It shouldn't be this hard to-'_

"Riku! Watch out!" Basch's voice was barely audible over the clamor of soldiers, but he heard enough to spin around and block an attack coming from behind.

Finally, he laid eyes upon the enemy Intoner; Zero. "You're...just a girl." Aside from the flower growing out of her right eye, to him, she looked like any normal girl around his age, not a monster or a beast as he would've thought, even though she behaved no differently than one.

A smirk pursed her lips, as if on the cusps of laughter, but she caught herself. "...Cunning observation.

While he was briefly caught off guard by her appearance, he immediately readjusted himself and pushed down on her sword. "Tell me now what you're doing with the heartless!"

"No idea what you're talking about." Their swords weren't locked for long because multiple soldiers came running to Riku's defense. "How annoying." She jumped away from him and started singing until her body glowed a bright pink color, not the move Riku was expecting, but the soldier's terrified reactions told him all he needed to.

**Verse 1**

_A world transparent_

_The song shall meet its end_

_When I become the monster I kill_

"It's the Intoner's song! Fear not men, we must push through!"

"We'll die in order to protect Lady Five's smile! AAAAHHHH!"

The soldiers charged at Zero, but through the power of song, she gained immense speed, among other attributes. She was effortlessly able to dodge all the sloppily thrown sword swings while also bashing their skulls together. However, her killing spree was put to an end when her body was suddenly encased in a thick sheet of ice, courtesy of a precisely aimed Blizzaga spell from Riku.

With Zero now frozen solid, one of the soldiers raised their sword in triumph. "Hurry men, let's seize this opportunity while the Intoner's trapped! For Lady Five!"

"Hurrah! For Lady Five!"

Two of the soldiers grabbed hold of her arms, restraining her. "Shall we execute this wench now?"

"No no, let's present her to Lady Five for a special reward~"

"Oh no, Zero's in big trouble now!" Zero's story may have ended right there if not for the fact that she didn't come to the battle alone. Flying high up in the sky was Mikhail, a giant white dragon who had stayed out of the action in order to destroy the soldier's battleship, but now that Zero's life was in peril, he was descending down to save her. "Don't worry, I'm gonna save you Z—Wahhh where'd these scary monsters come from?!"

Multiple airborne heartless were circling around Mikhail, he tried to claw them out of the sky, but that only made several more appear in its place. "Huuuuh? How'd you guys come back so fast like that?!"

 _'That girl can't be the one controlling the heartless so they're coming from somewhere else._ ' Riku swung his keyblade in the air, casting a Thundaga spell that destroyed the heartless around Mikhail.

"Whew, that sure was a close one, thank you, mister!" Mikhail said.

"No problem, just watch yourself, there's a lot more heartless where they came from."

The bloodstained battlefield, strewn with dead bodies of nameless men became a fertile breeding ground for the heartless. They crawled out of the depths of darkness to capture the hearts of the fallen soldiers, then moved onto taking the hearts of the living. But where there was darkness drawn from shadows, there was a light to cast it away in the form of Riku who wasted no time in driving his keyblade into the swarm.

Now that the campgrounds had effectively been run over by the heartless, Zero's situation began looking grimmer and grimmer. Just when it seemed like she would be carried off to the gallows in soldier's metal-clad arms, they too succumbed to the fate of having their hearts ripped away from them by the heartless.

For her sake, the ice at least had mostly thawed off no thanks to Mikhail, but she was in a worse situation than where she began. "What...the hell?" Zero had seen a lot of fucked up things during her lifetime, but watching a soldier be human one moment, then turn into a mindless, black creature the next was definitely high up there on the list. And with the way they were crawling up her body, she feared she would be next, but much to her surprise, Riku destroyed the heartless.

"Why ...did you save me?"

"You'd be more trouble if you were a heartless."

After the heartless were defeated, scarcely anything remained of the military base camp. Most of the infrastructure was ravaged away while the army of soldiers was reduced down to a sole survivor, but based on the fatal wound he was inflicted with, he wouldn't be for long. Regardless, Riku ran over to him, casting a Curaga spell that at least alleviated the pain.

"Oh man Riku...you always know just what to do." Basch removed his heavy helmet, he was a person underneath all of the armor, no different than Riku.

"I'm sorry, Basch...I wish I could've done more to help you...all of you."

He weakly gestured over to the battlefield. "You've done all that you can, but my brothers...there's...there's not even bodies left...what happened?" His hands curled up into a fist. "No, I know what happened. This was that damned intoner's doing, wasn't it?! She did this to them!"

Riku looked over to Zero who was getting ready to leave with Mikhail. "She killed them, but...I don't think she turned them into heartless." _'But that doesn't answer why they were turned into heartless so easily. Their hearts should've been stronger than that.'_

"No, it _had_ to be her and she'll turn Lady Five into a monster too!" He pushed Riku out of the way, then used his sword to stand himself up and limp over to Zero for one final stand against her. But he wasn't even able to reach her before falling on the ground into a pool of darkness where he joined his brothers.

"Basch..." Riku lowered his head in dismay.

"Well, that saved me the trouble," Zero said, but the fight wasn't over just yet. She pulled out her sword against Riku and they clashed blades once more. "Make your mind up, are you killing me or not? It's getting annoying."

"I'm taking you down!"

"What a surprise..." She trailed off as her eye grew wide. Without even giving her actions a second thought, she pushed Riku out of the way, letting herself get stabbed in the chest by a giant claymore.

"ZERO! NOOOO!" Mikhail wailed.

"I'm... fine you dummy..." She got flung off the sword and crashed into a pile of debris.

' _She saved me?'_ Riku summoned his keyblade to guard against the heartless' subsequent attack. He could tell from its armored bodied and proud stature that it was Basch's own darkness incarnate. ' _How did someone like him lose his heart to the darkness so fast?'_

Riku gathered some distance, then shot a Firaga spell at Basch's heartless. As it burned away in flames, he readied his keyblade for a finishing move; Zantetsuken, so he could quickly put it out of its misery. However, the second he was about to unleash his attack, the heartless returned to the darkness it was born out of.

' _That's unusual. I'll keep my guard up in case it attacks again.'_ He glanced over to Zero again who, despite being impaled and flung around like a doll, managed to stand herself up like it was nothing. _'Forget it. I should just leave before I get into any more trouble.'_

"...So is the jury still out on whether or not you're killing me?" Zero asked, walking towards him.

Sighing, he turned around to meet her. "What's your problem?!" He yelled.

"Gonna have to be more specific."

"You killed all those other soldiers like they were nothing, so why did you save me?"

"Call it returning the favor. Whatever your reasoning, you didn't let me die so I didn't let the same happen to you."

"And you saved me too!" Mikhail said.

"Shut up idiot, the grown-ups are talking right now."

"Aww, how come grown-ups get to have all the fun?"

"This isn't fun. Besides, you don't ever wanna be a grown-up."

"Why's that? Huh?"

"You're just a big baby now, but when you're an adult, all you'll have is yourself and I'm not gonna be there to take care of you when that happens."

"You're right, I don't wanna be a grown-up then 'cause I like it when you take care of me Zero!"

"Tch...I wouldn't call it that, I'm just making sure you don't die, that's all."

Riku shook his head. "I can't figure you out...you murder innocent people, but even so I can tell your heart isn't completely taken over by darkness."

"Riiiight, I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're not from around here."

' _She's a lot more perceptive than I figured.'_ "Huh...what gave it away?"

"Ehh, usually the men here just talk about wanting to fuck Five not whatever weird shit you're on."

"I'm ...from a place far away."

"Great. A foreigner getting involved in shit that has nothing to do with you."

"It's my business as long as the heartless are involved."

"Yeah whatever, and when you say the 'heartless' you're not talking about people, are you?"

"No, the heartless are those monsters that took the soldier's hearts away and it's my job to take them down. I'm actually surprised you didn't turn into one considering they blah blah blah blah and blah blah blah."

"Uh-huh..." She was pretty much tuning out whatever Riku had to say, more so focused on undressing him with her eye. _'Maybe it's because I haven't had sex in so long but I'm actually considering taking this guy with me even though I can already tell he's gonna annoy the fuck out of me.'_

"Hey, are you even listening?"

"No, but whatever's going on you can bet your ass that Five's behind it. You probably heard otherwise from the soldiers but that was just bullshit, plain and simple. She fucked with their heads and made them her slaves."

"What- are you serious...but how do you know that?"

"She's an Intoner like me and a dumb one at that. This is exactly the type of stupid shit she would pull."

"If Five's been brainwashing soldiers to fight for her then that does explain why they're so gung ho about protecting her and may even be why they're turning into heartless so fast...that's messed up if it's true. I need to put an end to this."

"Yeah? Well you know I was actually on my way to 'put an end' to Five myself and those heartless have been a pain in the ass for a while. I wouldn't be against the idea of you tagging along with me...day and night."

"Absolutely not. I don't want anything to do with you."

"If you don't want my help then have fun getting lost up your own asshole! A foreigner like you would never find Five's shrine."

Riku crossed his arms. "If that's how it is, then... fine. As long as you don't get in my way, I'll travel with you until Five's defeated."

"Then you better not bitch about it when I actually kill her."

"You won't be doing any killing until I figure out why she's using the heartless."

She snorted. "Good luck trying to talk to a tramp like her. All she'll be thinking about is what size you are."

"My...size?"

She eyed him up and down. "I'm curious myself, but I'll find out sooner or later. Anyways, Five's shrine is up ahead, let's cover some ground before it gets too dark."

"Yay, we have a new friend! So what's your name mister?" Mikhail asked.

"Name's Riku."

"Riku? That sure is a cool name, well I'm Mikhail and that's my grumpy friend Zero over there."

"Mikhail and Zero? You don't seem half as bad as her."

"Usually Zero's a big fat meanie, but she must've made an exception for you!"

"I'm contractually obligated to do one nice thing once every couple of years or so. Which means you're out of luck dummy," Zero said.

"Well I'm gonna be extra nice to you to make up for it! It's gotta balance out you know."

"You mean be extra annoying..."

"I'd still take his company over yours," Riku said.

"Once you get a good whiff of his rotten stench, you'll come running back to me."

"You don't exactly have the best scent either."

"What? Don't tell me, I smell like dried up blood, don't I?" Zero sarcastically remarked. "Trust me, you get used to the smell when you're a girl."

He rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Are you always this indecent?"

"Are you always _this_ boring?"

Once they reached another enemy stronghold, Zero instinctively pulled her sword out, but there seemed to be no soldiers in sight.

"They can't be all gone," Zero said.

"Maybe they all ran away 'cause they got scared of us," Mikhail said.

"I doubt it, brainwashed soldiers would die for their Intoner. They're probably attempting an ambush, stay back, I got this." As Zero searched around the campgrounds, Riku stayed behind with Mikhail, intent on getting some much needed answers.

"So Mikhail, since Zero is your friend, I'm sure you know a lot about her and the other Intoners."

"Like what?"

"Like strengths and weaknesses."

"Oh- oh I know this one! An Intoner's powers are like uh...is uhhhhh. Well, I don't remember the complicated way Zero explained it, but basically they get super powerful whenever they sing and I dunno if this is a strength or not but they're all sisters."

"Sisters? I'm guessing she doesn't have the best relationship with them."

"You're right on that one. Zero really _reeeally_ wants to fight them and won't even try talking to any of them." He puffed out hot air. "If you ask me, older siblings should be nice to their younger siblings, you know?"

"That would be ideal."

"—What're you two idiots talking about?" Zero asked, walking over to them.

"We were just having grown-up talk so you wouldn't understand, sorry."

"So you just decided to be a grown-up now?"

"Yep! Now you have to take me seriously too!"

She smirked. "Then you can collect all the firewood tonight. By yourself."

"What?! That's not fair Zero!"

"But you're such a big grown dragon now, aren't you?"

"...yeah."

"Then get your ass in gear and start collecting firewood! You can get plenty from this camp, it turns out all the soldiers did chicken out."

"You're mean Zero!"

"Hey, I can help you if you want Mikhail," Riku said.

"Really? You'd do that?"

"Sure, even grown-ups need help sometimes."

"Can you two get any more annoying? Just get the goddamn firewood."

Riku and Mikhail gathered up a pile of wood from the abandoned military base, then Zero handled the rest. She lit the fire using sparks from her own sword since she wasn't exactly confident in Mikhail to not burn them all up, but once the fire was started, Riku didn't stick around much longer. He left to the cliffside, preferring to keep to himself for the time being.

Meanwhile, Zero saw his isolation as an open invitation for a nightly escapade. So she waited until Mikhail was asleep to creep her way over to Riku. "So how long are you gonna keep up the lone wolf act?"

"Sorry... I'm not really good at these things."

"With what?"

"...Talking to girls I mean." He rubbed the back of his head. "Not that you're much of one anyway."

"I bet you were waiting all day to say that."

"Possibility. So what do you want? I'm sure you didn't come over just to talk to me."

"What, it's not obvious?"

He blankly stared at her.

"Guess not. Do I need to spell it out for you or should I start getting undressed?"

"If you're changing, I can go somewhere else."

She narrowed her eye. "Are you purposely trying to fuck with me?"

"You're the one that came over here to waste my time."

"Waste 'your' fucking time?! Keep talking like that and I might just kill you!"

Riku stood up, then approached Zero, his keyblade manifesting in his grasp.

"It's not like I was being serious, but if you want to d-"

"Watch out." His keyblade slashed upwards where a heartless was lunging for Zero's head, the blade a mere inches away from her face. "There's several more closing in around us."

"Way to kill the mood." She unsheathed her sword. "Where are the rest of those bastards?"

**"̵F̸O̸R̷ ̷Y̵O̴U̷R̸ ̶C̴R̶I̵M̶E̷S̶ ̷A̷G̶A̷I̴N̴S̴T̶ ̶L̸A̴D̵Y̷ ̸F̶I̵V̴E̴'̷S̶ ̴K̸I̷N̴G̸D̶O̴M̶.̷.̵.̴"̵**

"You hear that? It's close, but I can't tell where it's coming from..."

"You can read that shit? I have no idea what it's saying."

"What?"

"Never mind, just watch my back." She walked away from Riku.

"That's not a good idea."

"Don't worry. It's probably some more brainwashed soldiers, or drunk idiots pissing themselves with how funny they think they are."

**̶"̸F̷O̸R̴ ̵Y̶O̵U̶R̸ ̷M̵E̷R̷C̴I̸L̶E̸S̷S̶ ̵S̷L̸A̵U̵G̶H̵T̵E̸R̶ ̵O̷F̴ ̶T̶H̷E̴ ̴S̸O̷L̸D̸I̴E̷R̵S̷ ̶W̶H̵O̵ ̸D̴U̷T̸I̵F̷U̴L̸L̷Y̶ ̵S̶E̵R̶V̵E̶ ̵U̶N̶D̴E̸R̵ ̸O̴U̸R̴ ̶G̶O̶D̵D̴E̴S̶S̷.̴.̴.̶"̵**

All of a sudden, an armored hand shot up from the ground and grabbed her leg. "What the fuck is it this time?!" Its hold was too tight for her to wrangle free and stabbing the arm seemingly had no effect. To make matters worse, darkness began swirling around Zero's legs, slowly sinking her in. Another hand grabbed her other leg, then the heartless pulled itself up out of the darkness. It was none other than Basch's own darkness coming back to fulfill its promise of revenge on Zero.

**"̸I̸,̷ ̷S̴I̶R̷ ̸B̸A̵S̴C̸H̷,̸ ̶W̵I̶L̴L̶ ̶N̴O̶W̵ ̶E̷X̷E̵C̷U̶T̸E̴ ̶Y̸O̴U̸,̶ ̶T̷H̸E̸ ̵A̵C̵C̵U̴R̵S̸E̷D̶ ̷I̷N̷T̷O̶N̷E̷R̷.̸.̸.̶ ̷U̸N̵D̶E̶R̷ ̵H̴E̸R̸ ̴N̵A̴M̷E̵.̴"̵**

Fortunately, Riku was already on his way to save her, but Basch's heartless quickly held its sword to Zero's neck, threatening an untimely decapitation if he made the wrong move.

Basch's heartless then issued a second command directed towards Riku. " **N̴O̷W̸ ̵M̴E̷N̵,̷ ̵A̶T̵T̷A̷C̵K̷ ̴T̴H̸E̴ ̶T̵R̵A̸I̷T̶O̵R̷O̴U̵S̷ ̵P̶A̴L̶A̴D̶I̸N̶"**

Several armored heartless crawled out from the ground and charged at him with their giant swords and maces.

"Oh please, how cliche can you get it?" The sword etched deeper into her neck, drawing out blood, but Zero was unphased. "That was a mistake." She may have been at an obvious disadvantage, she was being restrained from behind with a sword to her neck, but the prospect of death held no meaning to her. With little options left to her disposal, she threw all of her weight against Basch's heartless, making both of them fall to the ground since the heartless was just empty armor put together by darkness after all.

Finally, Zero was able to break free of its hold and she immediately seized the opportunity to stab the heartless through its chest over and over again, but without copious amounts of blood to spill out, it wasn't nearly as satisfying. Nor did it seem like her attacks had any effect since the heartless was still aimlessly swinging its sword around.

"Zero, get back!" Riku called out.

Moments later, black bolts of electricity thundered from the sky and destroyed the surrounding heartless. The lightning connected with Basch's heartless as well, but despite being electrocuted with the powerful voltage a Thundaga could produce, it was still trying to get back up and kill Zero.

"Just stay down," Zero said.

**"I̶ ̷.̴.̷.̶ ̵w̴i̷l̷l̶ ̴s̶e̵r̷v̴e̶ ̷L̶a̷d̸y̸ ̵F̷i̸v̴e̶ ̶t̷o̵ ̴t̴h̴e̵ ̴e̴n̵d̷.̶.̶.̶"̷**

**"̸S̵h̷e̴'̷s̵ ̷a̴l̴l̵.̵.̶.̴t̸h̷a̵t̴ ̴I̵ ̷h̶a̸v̴e̶ ̷l̴e̸f̸t̷ ̷t̷o̴ ̷h̸o̷l̶d̶ ̶o̵n̸t̵o̶.̵.̶.̴"̸**

**"̴S̶h̶e̴'̷s̷ ̸a̵l̷l̵.̴.̵.̶t̶h̵a̷t̶ ̴I̸ ̴h̵a̷v̴e̷ ̶l̴e̴f̴t̵.̵.̴.̵"̵**

Riku's keyblade lodged straight into its head, the finishing blow as it was because a tiny, pink heart floated away, marking the end of the soldier's long battle. "Let your heart be free from the darkness."

"That was a pain in the ass," Zero said.

"Just don't be so reckless next time and it won't be such a pain."

"Quit bitching about it, we got out of it alive, didn't we?"

"I'm surprised you did."

"Don't get started with me."

They made it back to the campsite and Mikhail was fast asleep, blissfully unaware of the events that unfolded. Exhausted, Zero walked over to a patch of dirt across from Mikhail then fell asleep on the ground while Riku watched on.

"...What a messed up world."

_And so began the unlikely team up of the Intoner and the keyblade wielder._

_Neither of them liked each other very much, if at all_

_But they were both willing to work together for a common goal:_

_Defeat the fifth Intoner_

**Flowers for the Dead**

****

Riku in the Drakengard 3 style


	2. "The Siren's Call"

Zero woke up with the type of hazy feeling she'd only get after a heavy night of drinking. "Uggghhh, why do I feel shittier than usual." Groaning, she mentally checked her surroundings. ' _There's Mikhail, but where's the other one?'_ She looked around the campsite, but there was no sign of Riku.

Rather than come to the obvious conclusion, her mind jumped straight to the worst possible outcome. "That bastard..." She went over to Mikhail and kicked him in the head. "Get the hell up!"

"OW! That hurt, what'd you do that for?" He whined.

"Because we're leaving so you need to get up!"

"Fiiiine. So where are we going? Wait, wait, don't tell me, to Five's shrine, right?"

"Not right now. First, you need to tell me where Riku is so I can track him down and kill him."

"Wha- why?!"

"Because that bastard ditched us! Goddamnit, I should've known he wasn't going to stick around!"

"No way, Riku wouldn't do that."

"And how do you know that?"

"'Cause he's a good guy. Trust me, dragons know these types of things. I bet he's just playing around in the mud!"

"Maybe if you were a different type of dragon I would trust that, but your judgment's piss poor too."

"Wait a second...are you comparing me to Michael again?"

"No, I would never do that."

"Really?"

"Really. I'd never compare you two. Michael was amazing and you're just a dummy. If you want to be half the dragon he was then you'll tell me where that son of a bitch is so—"

"Looking for me?" Riku rejoined Zero and Mikhail.

Mikhail grinned like an idiot, knowing that he proved Zero wrong. "See, told ya!"

"Where the hell were you?!" Zero yelled.

"I was investigating heartless activity."

The intense look on her face eased up. "'Investigating heartless activity'? You should really listen to yourself talk sometimes."

Ignoring her disparaging remark, he continued, "They completely emptied out the weapon shop nearby which is strange behavior even for them. I think Five might be planning an attack."

"Oh yeah? I also heard she was going to be abstaining herself and starting a charity organization on top of it."

"I dunno, if Five's doing all those nice things, then why do you gotta fight her?" Mikhail asked.

"No Mikhail, Zero's not..." Riku let out an exasperated sigh. "Why don't you take this seriously! She must be a threat since you want to kill her so bad, right?"

"Threat my ass. Five's too much of a moron to plan a coordinated attack like that. Everything she does is to satisfy her own greed."

"And what type of greed would that be?"

"You know, the usual, sex, food, useless shit."

"Then explain the weapons."

"You don't wanna know."

"...So be it, but there's darkness in her heart if she can command the heartless like this."

"Yeah, however you wanna justify it. Let's get going to Five's shrine, we shouldn't be too far from it by now."

"That's good to hear."

"You aren't even going to _pretend_ to enjoy my company."

"Right, like you are right now?"

"Good point."

Once the three ventured further into the Land of Seas, there was a noticeable change in scenery and atmosphere due to the fact that the military base camps were deserted. Not only were the soldiers strangely missing in action, but even the supplies and weapons were gone, replaced by the ever-increasing presence of heartless. Riku naturally took care of the heartless on his own, leaving Zero to take a back seat to the action while he cleared hordes of enemies with all of his magical spells and gravity-defying abilities to his disposal.

As Zero watched on in the sidelines, she began sinking into her own thoughts. ' _He has a lot of power for a mere human. I know he's hiding something about him, but what is it? Could be what's in his pants.'_ She shook her head. ' _Stay focused.'_

"What's wrong, Zero? You look like you're thinking really hard about something," Mikhail said.

"Then why are you bothering me..."

"You think all the soldiers went home 'cause they got tired of fighting the monsters?"

"I'm just gonna let you put two and two together."

Riku returned to them. "All clear."

"Hey Riku, how come you're the only one who can defeat those monsters anyways?" Mikhail asked.

"That's actually not a dumb question," Zero said.

' _No reason to hide it or they'll get suspicious.'_ Summoning his keyblade into existence, he showed off his unique sword to the others. "My sword, the keyblade—"

She let out a chuckle. "Did you just call that thing a 'keyblade'?"

"Yeah, it's a sword with the properties of a key, hence the name."

"Now I've heard of everything. You must be a locked chest's worst enemy."

He glared at her. "You can mock it all you want, but this keyblade is why you haven't become a heartless yet."

"It's a joke, lighten up. You're always so goddamn serious."

"Whatever, let's just go."

They continued forward along the coast, soon reaching an incline that led into an area enclosed by steep rock formations. A would-be perfect place for soldiers to barricade intruders before they could infiltrate the stronghold, but it was heartless who filled in for their absence instead. Weak, pushover heartless that Riku easily mowed down, a far cry from the caliber of enemies he fought yesterday, but it at least made the journey go by relatively fast so he couldn't complain.

On the other hand, Zero was growing more restless without any men to slaughter and decided to make more conversation than normal to alleviate her boredom.

"It looks like people used to live here at some point," Zero said, taking interest in all the rotting cottages hugging the cliffside.

"Must be nice living near the sea, you can eat yummy fish all day if you want to!" Mikhail said. "Where did you used to live Riku?"

"A place like this...but with less death everywhere."

"Lucky you." Zero drew closer to Riku, then nudged him in the arm. "Hey, we've been going through this pretty fast. I think we have time to check out one of those houses."

"What for?"

"To have a good time~" Zero said with her usual smirk.

"Oh- oh, then can I join in too?" Mikhail asked.

"No..."

"Why? I wanna have a good time!"

"You'll figure it out when you're older."

"But you already said I was a grown-up yesterday!"

"That was yesterday."

"Look, I don't care about the houses anyways. Let's just stay focused on the mission," Riku said.

She crossed her arms. "Okay, so what's the deal? Do you have a girl waiting for you at home? Is that why you keep blowing me off like this?"

"Are you asking if I have a girlfriend?"

She rolled her eye. "Yes, dumbass."

Riku thought for a moment. ' _Wait, is she asking me this because she likes me?'_ "Uh..." ' _I should let her off easy.'_ "...I'm sure other guys like you for...you, but I'm not interested. Sorry."

Rather than sobering Zero like he would've hoped, it had the opposite effect, tipping her over the edge when she realized what he was saying. "That's not what I fucking meant! You know what? Drop it. I'm surrounded by two idiots."

She stomped ahead of him while he rubbed the back of his head in confusion. _'Why are girls so complicated?'_

As they left the ravine, they walked into an open beachfront. It was eerily desolate just like the rest of the areas, but there were a few stranded sail ships lying on the sand, almost giving off the impression there was an attempt made to escape.

"What the hell is this?" Zero frantically searched around, running up and down the shore. "Where's the shrine? Damnit, I think we've been had!"

All of a sudden, a Gigas dragged itself out of the murky waters, it didn't look like the heartless got hold of it yet so Zero had free reigns to go all out. "Finally, something I get to kill!" She didn't even wait for the Gigas to walk on land before sinking her sharp blade into its flesh, taking immense satisfaction as all of its blood sprayed onto her like a hose. "Die! Die! Die! Die!"

"Does she always get like this?" Riku asked.

"Pretty much," Mikhail said.

He sighed. "Why do I associate myself with her?"

However, while Zero was hacking away at the Gigas, the heartless were growing ever near, using Zero's own bloodlust to home in on her until they started swarming around the Gigas. Not wanting to become next on the heartless's menu, she backed away, forced to watch her own prey get pumped up with a boost of darkness that powered it up ten folds.

"For fuck's sake could you guys not turn into heartless for five minutes!"

In a matter of seconds, the Gigas went from a slow and stupid giant wannabe to a towering creature of darkness that dwarfed her in size. It grabbed the sail ships off the beach and began throwing them all over the place. Riku quickly slashed one of the ships in half while Mikhail smashed the whole ship with a headbutt.

"Oww, maybe that wasn't such a good idea," Mikhail said.

"Not like you had anything up there in the first place!" Zero ran back over to where Mikhail and Riku were, then jumped on her dragon's back. She motioned to Riku. "Get on idiot, let's take this thing down!"

He hopped on Mikhail's back and they took off into the skies. "You forget my name already?"

"Nope."

"So you're just doing this to spite me?"

"Yep."

"Don't worry, you get used to it," Mikhail said.

"Alright, I'm gonna get close to this thing so you can destroy it," Zero said.

Mikhail suddenly jerked back to avoid an incoming sail ship.

"What the hell you dummy?!"

"Sorry, I didn't know what to do!"

"You're a dragon aren't you? Just blow 'em up with a fireball or something."

"That's easier said than done y'know."

"Then let me handle it." Riku aimed his keyblade at another ship and blasted a Firaga spell at it that burned the wooden vessel into ash.

"How is he more of a dragon than you?"

"Probably needs more encouragement than you just yelling and screaming at him," Riku said.

She shrugged. "Worked for me and I turned out fine."

"Uh..."

"Don't be a smartass."

"Fine, and this distance is close enough. I'll take it from here!" Jumping off Mikhail's back, Riku landed on the arm of the Gigas heartless, then worked his way up from there. He made it all the way up to its hunched shoulders without it even noticing and by the time it did, Riku was already slashing its neck.

The Gigas heartless tried to swat at Riku, but Mikhail managed to burn a good chunk of its arm off with a well-timed fireball.

"Nice Mikhail," Riku said.

"Thanks! I knew I could do it!"

Riku swung around to the front of the Gigas heartless where he lodged his keyblade into its head then dragged the blade all the way down its body, severing the monster in two. He landed on the beach as the darkness withered away into oblivion.

Zero fell down beside him. "Damn, what the hell are these heartless after?"

"I think I explained all of this yesterday."

"Wasn't listening."

"Then why don't you ask the heartless? Sure they'll lend an ear."

"You mean the heartless we just defeated? Too late for that."

"I was...joking."

"That's your idea of a joke? You're bad at that too."

"Hey-hey, look at the ocean everyone, something's rising from the water!" Mikhail said.

An entire fortress hidden underwater rose to the surface, a new pathway leading to Five's shrine.

"Heh, they're really rolling out the red carpet," Zero said. "Alright Five, let's see what you got."

She looked over to Mikhail. "Make yourself useful and scout the skies, will ya?"

"Roger that!" Mikhail hovered over them while Zero and Riku went by on foot.

Zero scrunched up her nose. "Ugh...what's that smell? I thought that dummy left already."

Mikhail frowned. "Are you saying I smell bad?!"

"You smell like a bloated goat carcass stuffed with rotting fish if that's any indication."

"Oh...that doesn't sound good at all."

"Heh, yeah. Now imagine having to ride on that thing."

"Riku rode on me too and he's not complaining about the smell!"

"No, you definitely stink," Riku said. "But so does everything and everyone else around here."

"That better of not been directed towards me," Zero said.

"Only if you take it that way."

"So what does Zero smell like, Riku?" Mikhail asked.

"Don't answer that question!"

"Like if you sprayed perfume on rotten fish."

"Ha-ha! That's so true! Guess we all stink like fish since we're all out at sea!"

"Shut the hell up and start doing what I asked!" She glared at Riku. "And you! Keep pissing me off like this and I'll kick your ass!"

"You can fight me later. Let's keep moving."

Once they got deeper into the fortress, that's when they saw the long lines of heartless carrying all sorts of things in their hands, from food to large crates of treasure, but what was most disturbing were the dead people they carried. Riku motioned Zero to hide behind a pillar where they watched on in disgust. Most of the corpses belonged to soldiers, but they carried a few unlucky civilians too. Their destination was all the same; inside the various dark portals where they would be sent to an unknown location.

"I get the food and treasure, but dead bodies? That's fucked up even for Five," Zero said.

"All these people...how could anyone do such a thing?" Riku was so angry his body was shaking and even the darkness he long kept under control was developing a dark aura around him.

 _'His presence is just like those monsters. Is this what he's been hiding?'_ "They're just soldiers, no need to get so worked up over them. Once we kill Five, this will all be over."

"No, I'm ending this now." As he rushed in on the horde of heartless, darkness centered around his keyblade, first he struck the enemies with a wide-reaching spin attack, then he went in for another spin attack with his keyblade radiating light this time. He finished off the rest with Dark Thundaga, not only destroying the heartless, but blowing off huge chunks of the stone infrastructure that comprised the fortress.

"You sure didn't hold back," Zero said, almost sounding impressed as she walked up to him. "Hope you keep that up for when we face Five."

"...You can count on it. Five's shrine shouldn't be far from here, right?"

"Hold on a second. I hear something..." She traced the sound all the way to a hidden soldier who was sobbing like a child.

Zero was about to pull her sword out on him, but Riku stopped her.

"I need to figure out what's going on," He said.

"I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but whatever."

Riku bent down. "Hey, you okay? What's going on here?"

"E-everyone the-they just-"

Zero groaned at his blubbering. "Ugh, are we really wasting time on this shit?"

"Ignore her and listen to me. Just tell me what happened here to all the soldiers and I can try to fix it."

"Okay..." He took a deep breath. "It ... was just yesterday when we had an entire army of soldiers here and everything was fine, then some of us randomly turned into those...those black monsters out of nowhere and they attacked us. Pretty soon, everyone started turning on each other because no one knew who would become a monster next."

"So that explains the dead bodies."

"Yeah, now there's only a few survivors left. No one knows why we're all turning into monsters, but it's scary man!" He started shaking again. "I don't wanna do this anymore, I just wanna go back home to my family and forget all this happened."

Zero brandished her sword again. "Then why don't I end your misery."

"What's wrong with you?!" Riku yelled.

"He's obviously going to turn into a heartless soon and you're fine with killing those without batting an eye so I don't see a difference."

"Killing a man is different. Besides, I'm not even killing the heartless, I'm setting their hearts free from the darkness."

"Really? That's your justification?"

"You can call it whatever you want, but there's not much else I can do for them. That's why it's better to prevent people from becoming a heartless in the first place." He offered his hand to the soldier. "Come on, I'll get you back to your family."

"But...what if I become a monster too and hurt my family?! I don't wanna do that!"

"Oh my god, then let's kill you already."

"Zero!"

"What? I'm done wasting my time with this shit."

"She's right...it's too late. Please, just make sure my family is okay...I have a wife...and...ki..." He fell down, the darkness taking claim of his heart and turning him into a heartless. Riku had no choice but to quickly destroy it so at least his heart would be free.

"See? I knew I was right. This is why we should've just killed him before it happened," Zero said.

Riku stood up. "... I'm not doing that."

"Tch, then what's your fucking alternative?!"

"I don't know...but I can't just take their life away from them because they _might_ become a heartless!"

"You can't save them!" She yanked Riku by the collar, catching him off guard, then forced him against the wall. "The soldiers were already gone the second they heard the Intoner's song, that's why the Intoners all have to die because this is the world they create! So grow some fucking balls and put that keyblade to use!"

"So they didn't even have a chance from the beginning? All of this is so wrong..."

"Yeah, well welcome to Midgard. Get used to it."

Riku pushed her off and fixed his collar. "I'm not getting used to this. There has to be a way to make things right."

"If you ever come up with one in the next decade then be sure to let me know."

They encountered more heartless as they stormed the fortress and all Riku could think about were the people they used to be, but he pushed on regardless, determined to defeat Five now more than ever. Together, the two made quick work of whatever obstacles got in their way, and they were nearly out of the fortress until they were stopped by a large soldier. Though he was far from ordinary as he was twice the size of one of the regular forces and wielded a giant gladiator sword to boot.

"My men may have failed me, but this is as far as you go. For I am Gladiolus, the captain of the guard. I bolster the strength of a hundred men!"

"Blah blah. You're awfully cocky for someone who's about to die," Zero said.

"Zero, stand down for now, there's something off about this guy."

"I don't have time for you to go chickenshit on me again. I'm killing him!"

While Zero tactlessly rushed in with her sword, Gladiolus held his position, making no efforts to defend himself. However, when she was within his range, a dark aura surrounded him and two Defender heartless rose from the darkness to come to his aid. Riku quickly cast stop on the heartless so their shields wouldn't snap Zero's arm off.

"What the hell?" Zero turned back to Riku who already had a smug look on his face. "Don't even fucking say it."

"Don't have to, just keep on fighting. I'll watch your back!"

Zero jumped over the Defender heartless and locked swords with Gladiolus. "So where's this 'strength of a hundred men' gramps? You're just as weak as any other—"

In one swift movement, Gladiolus snatched Zero by the arm and slammed her on the ground. "Now DIE!"

"That's my line." Zero rolled out of the way before she could get cleaved by his sword then she went in for a series of combo attacks so she could break his defense.

Meanwhile, the two Defender heartless were charging at Riku. Since he already destroyed more Defender heartless than he could count during his time in Hollow Bastion, defeating them would be a relatively fast process. He decided against wasting his magic on them and simply got behind their demon shields to bash their heads in.

When the hearts were released, he checked in on Zero who was still battling Gladiolus. ' _This should help her out.'_ Once he Gravity on the captain, the crushing force of the spell was enough to bring him down to his knees. Just when Zero was about to finish him off for good by chopping his head off, Riku intercepted her sword before the blade could cut through his neck.

She pushed down on his keyblade. "Either he dies as a man or he dies as a heartless, you can't have it both ways!"

"No! Gladiolus, don't you have someone to live for?! There has to be family, or friends, _someone_ waiting for you to come back! Stop fighting for Five and go home to them instead of wasting your life like this!"

"...I will die for Lady Five, she is the most divine, righteous ruler of this land and I will ensure no harm comes to her!" With the Gravity spell losing its effect, Gladiolus wielded his sword and swung at Riku using every last ounce of strength he could muster.

But even with all of his strength, Riku was still one step ahead, immediately employing Dark Barrier to cover from behind, leaving Zero to carry out his execution. Riku watched solemnly as his head rolled on the blood-stained ground, still silently cursing himself for not being able to do more.

"It gets easier the more you do it," Zero said. "The more you kill I mean. That's why I can do it so easily."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I don't know, just felt like it, I guess." She stared at him with her rose colored eye. For once, it was a contemplative look, not an angry one like he would've expected from his actions. "...Make your mind up about me now because this whole killing thing isn't going to stop. Not until all of my sisters are dead."

"I'm still trying to figure you out so I haven't made my mind up yet."

All she could do was chuckle at how dead serious he was about his answer. "Do you always have to be such a pain in the ass about everything? Come on, the heartless are probably gonna use him as a meatbag soon so we should get out of here."

Riku took one last look at the severed corpse, with the immense strength he bolstered, he figured he was the last soldier left who hadn't turn into a heartless yet. If nothing else, there was at least dignity in dying as a man rather than a monster. ' _It's better that I leave so I don't attract more heartless with my keyblade.'_ He turned away then left with Zero.

It didn't take long for them to reach the wharf that marked the limits of the fortress. They could see Mikhail flying around not too far ahead, attempting to take down a battleship.

"You still haven't sunk that thing yet Mikhail!" Zero yelled.

"Hey, it's hard, not my fault this battleship's got a bunch of creepy monsters controlling it!"

"That sounds like the heartless," Riku said.

"Again? This shit never ends."

"Welcome to my world."

The two of them hopped on Mikhail's back as he flew over, then he went back to the battleship which barely had a scratch on it. "What the- you haven't damaged this thing at all, have you?"

"I was saving it for you Zero! And my attacks aren't really working either so..."

"That's not an excuse! What am I supposed to do about a battleship?!"

"Well I know you love blowing things up so this should be pretty easy for you. Just my little random act of kindness, neat huh?"

"Goddamnit dragon!" She raised her sword.

"Remember what I said about encouragement," Riku said.

"You're right...so how's this for some encouragement!" She stabbed Mikhail's head multiple times.

"That's not what I meant."

"Ow ow ow!" He yelped. "Why'd you stab me?!"

"Just shut up and try not to get us blown 一"

Several cannon balls covered in darkness came spiraling towards them, Mikhail nosedived to avoid fire, which only got them closer to the ship's range.

"Goddamnit." She whipped her head over to Riku. "Hey asshole, see if you can take that ship down before we're all fucked!"

"Did you just give me another nickname?"

"I actually came up with several, I'm trying to see which one sticks."

"And why can't you use my real name?"

"Because I don't like you."

Sighing, he leapt off of Mikhail and knocked back the incoming cannonballs so they crashed into the battleship. Now that Mikhail didn't have to worry about getting pelted with darkness infused cannonballs, he went ahead and charged straight into the battleship, sinking the vessel.

Mikhail flew back around to catch Riku before he plummeted into the ocean.

"Did I do a good job Riku?"

"Yeah, nice catch. So what's next?"

"Five's shrine is over there. Let's go," Zero said.

When they finally arrived at the shrine, however, every inch of the place was crawling with heartless...

And yet, there wasn't a single Intoner to be found.

"There's something messed up about these heartless. It's dangerous here," Riku said.

Zero ignored him and went on ahead. "Five, where the hell are you?! Five! FIVE!"

**Several Hours Earlier**

Not too far cast off from the Land of Seas was the shrine of Lady Five, it was an open secret for the numerous suitors that frequently visited the insatiable Five for one of her nightly escapades. However in an unusual turn of events, it wasn't dozens of men that waited on Five hand and foot, but heartless that were now quickly populating the shrine. The monstrous creatures brought her gifts and treasures all throughout the land and fulfilled every whim she so desired.

One of the heartless, a big body, gifted her with an armory full of weapons that particularly got Five excited, at least more so than her usual near-constant state of arousal. "Oooh my, look at all these sharp, pointy weapons! They're really gonna spice things up tonight, wouldn't you agree?"

Dito, her 'loyal' disciple, groaned in misery. "I rather get thrown off a cliff multiple times then do another BDSM session with you..."

"Mm, what was that sweet little Dito?"

"Nothing you need to worry about. Anyways, you sure it's a good idea to let these demons roam around? Don't get me wrong, they were sick at first, but now they keep looking at me like I'm dinner or something."

"Oh nonsense. They probably just can't get enough of you, I know I can't." Her eyes drew over alluringly to Dito, she took a step closer to him while he took a step backward. "Now you're playing hard to get? I love this type of foreplay!"

' _God I can't stand this bitch. How the fuck do I get out of this?'_ "Uhh...oh hey, take a look at what those demons brought back this time. I'm gonna get a closer look at it." He broke away from Five, finding the company of heartless more tolerable than hers.

This time around, among the treasures and spoils the heartless brought in, the corpses of dead soldiers were thrown into the mix. "Huh? They're bringing in dead bodies? It's probably for some weird shit Five thought of..." Curious, he followed the heartless that were carrying the corpses and found they were all throwing them into a pile.

"Oh man, that's so nasty!" He exclaimed with a twisted smile on his face. "And that stench, holy shit, I bet there are hundreds of maggots crawling all up in their bodies and liquifying their organs!"

"What're you so happy for?" Five asked, walking up to Dito. "This simply won't do. I asked them to bring me some men to play with, but I guess I should've specified dead or alive."

Dito rolled his eyes. "So you're telling me the Intoner with the libido of like 50 Intoners isn't even slightly turned on by this disgusting decay of rotting flesh and bones?"

"I have my standards too you know." She placed her hands on her hips in an indignant manner. "Awww, so much for the massive orgy I had planned!"

"What a tragedy. Well, I dunno about you but I'm so gonna check out all those dead bodies!"

"But you'll smell like gross, rotting flesh! Doesn't that turn you off?"

"Not at all."

"Well if this is your way of getting yourself _ready_ for me tonight then by all means. Just make sure you..."

But Dito had already gone to check out the cadavers the moment she gave him the okay.

"Dito!" She stamped her foot on the ground. "Hmph, he's being such a bad boy, I'm gonna have to give him a nice, long spanking soon to teach him some manners. In the meantime, I guess I'll see what other goodies my pets brought for me."

Five strolled around the shrine, admiring all the treasures the heartless collected, but one treasure in particular caught her eye.

"What's this?" She bent down and picked up a little girl's doll. There was a tag around the doll's neck with a message written over it. "' _A special gift for my sweet little girl- Daddy._ '"

"...Daddy?" Out of all the expensive things that surrounded her, the doll was probably the most worthless and yet she couldn't let it go. For a brief moment, an ugly feeling she long kept hidden away threatened to spill out its contents so she suppressed it the only way she knew how. "...Clearly the stuff I have isn't enough to satisfy my cravings so I'm gonna have to work them harder and faster until they're begging me to stop!"

She clapped her hands together and several heartless surrounded her. "Listen up my adorable little pets, I want all the food, treasure and hunky men you can bring me! They don't have to be soldiers either, they just need to be _not_ completely dead. I'll even take them unconscious. Just fill me in with so much stuff until I can't take it anymore~"

"Oh but before you go, I have a special gift to give each and every one of you just to make things go a little bit faster, alright?" Five decided to influence the heartless with her songstress powers, thinking it would enhance their productivity, but instead they started spazzing out.

"Are they about to climax? I didn't know my song was that sexy and alluring!"

"I don't think that's what's happening," Dito said, running back over to her.

"Oooh, you smell positively repulsive! Your stench makes me want to put you in the bath and feel all up your-"

"Now is not the time to think about that! Look!" He pointed to the heartless who appeared to be undergoing a mutation of sorts. Some were fusing together while others were growing random body parts and turning different colors. "Now what? Just wanna kick the bucket? I honestly wouldn't mind turning into a demon, they look cool enough."

"Now don't you worry about it, they just decided to spice it up, that's all. Who doesn't love a good wardrobe change? They're still under my control so it's not an issue." She approached the unstable heartless and one of them lunged at her, clamping down on her arm. "Oh you have a little bit of a bite, don't you? You really want me to punish you that badly?"

"Five maybe you shouldn't一"

Just like that, the heartless tore her arm off and blood sprayed out. The state of shock she was put in even caused her to shut up for a moment.

"Holy shit!" Dito had no choice but to stab the heartless with his spear until it gave up its physical form. "That was awesome! And look at that severed arm, you can see all the blood and tendons spilling out of its cavity! Oh man, maybe your head will be ne一er uh, nevermind."

After a long silence, Five collected herself enough to speak to her disciple. "Dito. I'm afraid we're leaving."

"Yeah, yeah. Just when things were starting to get good."

She picked up her arm. "My big sis Four should know what to do, she's been trying to get rid of these monsters for the longest. I'm sure her big brain can figure out a way to help me control them!"

_With the heartless threatening to destroy them_

_The Fifth Intoner and her disciple fled the very lands they once called home_

_And all the people of her land were now nothing more than monsters_

_All thanks to the Intoner's insatiable greed_

_No one in the Land of Seas had a place to call home_

**Flowers for the Dead**


	3. "You Reflect Me"

"Damn it, I don't understand, that slut should be here!"

While Zero was scouring the shrine, Riku was trying his best to eliminate the mutated heartless, but the shrine was filled with so much junk it was a challenge just maneuvering past all of it. To make matters worse, the mutated heartless were of a particularly vicious and violent variety, he lost track of the number of times they tried to bite his or Zero's head off and Mikhail didn't fare much better.

"This is really, really scary! I don't like this!" Mikhail said as he stomped at the heartless biting his legs.

Eventually, Riku was able to grab hold of Zero. "Give it up. She's not here."

"Then where the hell else could she be?! Did she turn into one of these fuckers?!"

"No. She would've been a much more powerful heartless than these guys if that were the case. Wherever she is, we'll track her down and defeat her."

Zero looked at the bloodthirsty heartless then back to Riku. "...You're still coming with us?"

"I said I wouldn't leave until Five's defeated so let's go. She couldn't have gotten too far away from here."

"I'm not wasting my time trying to find that bitch. We're going after Four now."

* * *

After leaving Five's shrine, their next destination was the Land of Mountains where Zero's fourth sister awaited them. Before they went off to wreak havoc at another enemy stronghold, they set up camp at the base of the mountains where they wouldn't be disturbed. Exhaustion took its toll on Zero and she was knocked out on the ground while Riku and Mikhail were still settling in.

"Zero must be really tired." Mikhail circled around the ground a few times, then plopped down.

Riku eased himself down by the fire. "She's not the only one."

"Hey Riku...are you gonna leave tonight?"

"Nah, I think I'll stay here. It's a lot quieter when she's asleep."

"Ha ha, yeah, she says that a bunch too!"

"Mikhail...why do you hang around Zero anyway? She's not exactly the nicest person to be around."

He thought for a moment. "Uh...well even though she's really mean sometimes, she's still my best friend in the whole world so it's not like I can just leave her, y'know? And...she doesn't want me to leave her either."

"Why is that?"

"I don't have any memories of him, but I used to be a super strong dragon named Michael and Zero was really close to him. She would actually call him by his name and stuff, not like she does for me. Do you have any friends like that, Riku?"

"Yeah, I've been looking for him. That's mainly why I'm here."

"Sorry your friend's lost. What was he like? Maybe we can find him together!"

"He's...well actually he's a lot like you Mikhail."

"Really? Then I bet your friend's cool and awesome like me!"

He rubbed the back of his head. "Heh, something like that."

"If we find him, do you think me and him can be friends?"

"Definitely, you two are cut from the same cloth."

"What about with Zero?"

"It's possible, he can make friends with just about anyone. He even made friends with someone who reminds me way too much of Zero. Didn't like her too much either."

"Whoa, another Zero sounds scary!"

"Tell me about it."

"—Will you two shut the fuck up? I'm trying to get some sleep here!"

"Guess that's it, don't wanna have to deal with her tonight. Night Mikhail," Riku said.

"Okay...let's talk like this again real soon, alright?"

He gave him a small smile. "Alright."

The following morning, Riku woke up earlier than usual to catch some fish and roast it over the campfire. ' _This world's a lot bigger than I thought so how long do I expect to stay here? Getting rid of the darkness in a world that thrives off of it won't be an easy task.'_ The aroma of fire-roasted fish drifting into the air soon woke up Zero and Mikhail.

"Whatcha cooking Riku? It smells super yummy," Mikhail said.

"Something to eat." He threw one of the fish over to Mikhail who happily gobbled it up.

"It tastes super yummy too! This is a lot better than eating dirt!"

"Don't eat dirt Mikhail..."

Zero walked up to him with her arms crossed. "What's this for?"

"Haven't eaten in a while so I was hungry, figured you guys might be too."

She snatched the biggest fish for herself then tore into it. "We're leaving soon, I'm gonna go take a piss. Be ready when I get back."

"Ever heard of too much information?"

"Heh, I might take a nice, long shit too. Is that enough information for you?"

"You're the worst."

"Like I haven't heard that one before."

Once Zero took care of her business, they began their journey through the Land of Mountains.

"Hey, we're going to be making a stop at this village coming up. I need more weapons and supplies to take on Four," Zero said.

"Is your sister that bad?" Riku asked.

"She is the sleaziest of my sisters."

"What's that mean? Is she slutty like Five?" Mikhail asked.

"Don't say bad words like that," Riku said.

"Sorry, but Zero's the one who told me! I dunno what it really means."

"You can try to be a better influence, Zero."

"Only if you try to jump off a cliff."

He rolled his eyes.

"That was a real sleazy thing to say," Mikhail said.

"Stop using words you don't know the meaning of."

"Then tell me what sleazy means! Tell me! Tell me!"

"Fine if it makes you shut up about it. A sleazy person is like someone who acts all sugary sweet on the outside, but on the inside they're evil."

"So that's the type of sister Four is?"

"Yep. Kind of have to be evil if you're a _virgin_ Intoner."

"Huh what's a ...virgin?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Is a virgin supposed to be a bad thing?" Riku asked.

"Please, only a virgin would say that. Unless..." She glared at him. "Wait, don't tell me you're one!"

"Why are you asking me that?"

"Because I can't stand virgins and I find it hard to believe someone with your looks hasn't slept with anyone before."

"But we all slept together last night," Mikhail said

She ignored Mikhail and continued to grill Riku. "Well? I'm not gonna stop asking until you tell me."

"Don't waste your breath."

"Tch...I bet you're being so quiet about it because you aren't even packing anything big down there," She said with a devilish smirk.

"What did you say?"

"No way, whatever Riku's packing I bet it's really, really big," Mikhail said.

"You don't even know what you're saying. This is grown-up conversation so stay out of it," Zero said

"But that's what you always say! I wanna talk about how big the stuff Riku's packing too!"

"Will both of you shut up?!" Riku's face started turning red which only made Zero want to tease him more about it.

"Aw, is that a sore subject for you?"

"I'm not talking about this with you."

"I'm sure other girls aren't talking about 'it' either."

"Shut. Up."

"So am I going to need a magnifying glass to see it up close or-"

"I said shut up." He walked on ahead of them.

"What's wrong with Riku? Did we hurt his feelings?"

Zero shrugged. "I guess his patience is short too."

After a while Zero stopped at a narrow suspension bridge that led into a different direction than the one they were heading towards. "The village is just down this bridge." She made a gesture to Mikhail. "You stay here."

"But I wanna see the village too!"

"No, you're gonna get in the way, just do what I ask. Oh- and you better not screw around in the mud while we're gone or you're dead!"

"Oh alright, but can you get some food for me? I've been craving maggots a lot lately."

"Don't eat maggots..." Riku said. "Unless that's the type of food dragons eat."

"He'll eat whatever crap he finds on the ground so come on let's go already," Zero said.

Riku and Zero crossed the suspension bridge, soon entering a small village. Unbeknownst to them, the village was severely run down and appeared to be abandoned. No one was there to populate the streets or run the local shops, effectively making it a ghost town.

"This village reeks of darkness. That's not a good sign," Riku said.

"What's darkness even supposed to smell like?"

"It's hard to explain, but I can tell the heartless have been through here a couple of times."

"Not even surprised. If I were one of those bastards I'd wreck as much shit as possible."

"Like you don't already?"

"Good point."

They made it to the weapon shop where Zero filled out a form. "...Alright, that takes care of that."

"You're not getting any weapons?"

"The weapon shops run by mail order, I'll get it the next day."

"What? How would anyone even...nevermind. So are we good here?"

"Well, we got some time to kill. How about me and you sneak into one of these houses and I'll measure how long you are myself~"

"I already know my height."

"You're just doing this to piss me off, aren't you? What, are you still mad about me calling your-"

"...hold on. I hear something." He summoned his keyblade and started running off while Zero begrudgingly following him behind.

"Over here!" Riku burst into one of the houses and found several heartless roaming around. He effortlessly slashed through the creatures of darkness, then ran upstairs where he saw a little girl getting dragged into the darkness by neoshadow heartless. They would be a bit trickier to eliminate without also harming the little girl so he made sure to carefully strike through each of them, relying on his regular keyblade attacks, until they were all defeated.

"Hey, you okay?" The little girl nodded her head slowly, but Riku could see an array of scratches and bruises marking her body so he bent down and cast Curaga on her. "That should fix you up. Do you know where your parents are?"  
  
She shook her head.

"That's okay, we can find them together." When he reached his hand out to her, she flinched then instinctively guarded her body away from him.

Her defensiveness caught Riku off guard but he adjusted accordingly. "Don't be afraid, I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise. I just want to keep you safe. My name is Riku by the way."

"..."

"Can you tell me your name at least?"

"Cl...Claire."

"—Hey you jackass!" It was Zero, she ran upstairs and found the two of them. "How about you give me a warning next time before you run off?!"

"Maybe you should keep up next time."

"You want me to choke you in front of that kid?"

"I was kidding. Thought you were the one who told me to lighten up."

"It doesn't go both ways." She crossed her arms. "So why is there a brat here anyways?"

"Her name is Claire. She's lost her parents so I'm gonna help her find them."

"Seriously? Why the hell are you getting yourself involved in this shit again?"

"Because it would be wrong to leave her alone like this."

Zero took one look at Claire and saw her entire story play out before her. From her unkempt appearance to the deadness in her eyes, she knew exactly what type of girl she was because all she could see was herself.

—

_Once upon a time, there was a little girl that was hated by the world._

_No one loved her._

_No one wanted her._

_She was alone. All alone_

" _What's this?" Her mother felt around on the bed. "_ _You wet the bed again?!" She raised her hand to the little girl who was shaking in fear and brutally beat her child until she lost all sensation._

" _Wash all of the bedding right now or you'll be sleeping outside tonight." Her mother stumbled towards the bathroom to wash the blood off her hands._

" _You better be counting your days living in my house because soon you'll be working in the brothel."_

_The little girl didn't blame her mother for her cruelty. She reasoned that her mother was raising her in the only way she knew how._

_After all, she knew that she was unwanted and was only a bothersome pest to her mother._

_She knew she didn't deserve her love._

—

Zero could feel her deep-seated anger for the world rising to the top and with trembling hands, she unsheathed her sword, but Riku stood in front of Claire. "What're you doing?! There's no way you would actually hurt a little girl!"

"Who cares about some worthless brat. Either let the heartless deal with her or I'll end her miserable life myself because she's _not_ getting in my way."

Riku balled his hands into a fist. "I'm tired of this! All of this killing... and for what?! I thought you were actually trying to do something good for this world, but you don't care about any of that. All you care about is yourself, nothing else matters to you!"

It wasn't just his words that cut deep because she already accepted all of those things about her, no, it was the disheartened look on his face. Like he was surprised she turned out to be a heartless asshole. Even then, he was still trying to search for the good in her and that's what made her so angry. Angrier than she'd ever been in a long time. "Shut the fuck up! You don't know anything about me so stop looking at me like that...like you know who I am!"

"No, you've already shown me exactly the type of person who you are. You're a coward and your heart is full of cracks!"

"Keep talking like that and I'll fucking kill you! I mean it!"

"Go ahead! Kill me since that's the only thing you know how to do!"

"Because this is all I've ever known!" In the heat of the moment, Zero yanked his collar down and punched the side of his face as hard as she could, but he didn't even flinch as the blood dripped down from his mouth.

Riku put his hand on Zero's, then pushed it away. "...I stuck around because I saw there was a light inside of you as much as you tried to hide it, but I guess I was wrong about that too."

He left the house with Claire while Zero spiraled into rage. "FUCK!" She punched open a hole in the wall, then soon left the house as well, making sure to trash everything before she left.

For a while, Zero wandered around the village, destroying as much of her surroundings as she could because it was the only way she knew to calm herself down and eventually she did. "...He can do his shitty sidequest and die for all I care. I'm gonna see if this place has a tavern at least before I leave." She navigated past all of the houses and shops, figuring a tavern would have to be located somewhere on the far reaches of the village.

' _This place reminds me of my shitty ass childhood.'_ When Zero made it to the outskirts of town there was a tavern waiting for her to drink her problems away, however, next to it was a brothel. Maybe because she especially hated herself at that moment, but she went towards the brothel instead, soon discovering the place had been boarded up with a sign nailed to it. "What's this.. _.'An establishment of this nature shall not be permitted under Lady Four's rule_ '."

"She's pretty stupid if she thinks a sign would stop anyone from fucking." Kicking the door down, Zero walked inside the deteriorated building. "Just as depressing as I remember it..." The sight alone was enough to make her sick and everything still reeked of beer, but she came inside for a reason, not just for self-depreciation.

—

 _Finally, the little girl could have something to hold onto because_ _she made a friend of her own in the place she despised the most._

_The only one, she thought, who would ever care about her and make her smile._

" _Don't worry, once we steal all this money, we'll leave and never look back. Just me and you!"_

" _Really? You mean it?"_

" _Yeah, I promise. If we make it across the river, everything will work out! We'll be together forever ███!"_

_But, like always, the little girl was wrong._

—

"It should be here..."

Zero jumped behind the counter where she located a stack of bound papers. "Now what was that brat's name again..." Flipping through the pages, she found what she was looking for; a profile, or rather an advertisement for the little girl. "Of course she's here... I'm never wrong about these things." She tore out the page and was about to leave when she got confronted by a gang of heartless.

' _Riku's not saving my ass so I'm on my own this time.'_ However, when Zero charged at the heartless, guns blazing and all, she quickly remembered just how futile fighting against them was. No matter how many she thought she could destroy, they always came back and soon she was completely cornered. "...Forget it. See you in hell." Rather than continue fighting a battle she inevitably wasn't going to win, she put her sword away and let the heartless crawl over her body where she then got dragged inside a dark portal.

" _Fear not. For you do not fight alone."_

" _No Michael...you're not here to save me. I'm all alone."_

" _You're not alone. That, I promise."_

" _If only you could keep your promises..."_

When Zero opened her eyes, all she could see in front of her was complete darkness. "Huh...where am I?"

"Shhh! Hush or you'll be next!"

"What the hell? Who the fuck is talking to me?!"

"Didn't I just say to hush!"

"You know I'd kill you if I could see your goddamn face! So...are we dead now or what?

"No, not yet."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means if you don't keep your voice down the demon will take you away and eat you alive!"

"—It's true!" Another chimed in. "As long as you stay silent, they won't detect your presence."

"Right, and how's that been working for you?"

"We've lost many friends and family, but this is our only choice."

"Well I'm not waiting to die, I've done that enough already."

"I see. Then it was nice knowing you."

"Shut up already." Zero stood up and began her song of ruin.

**Verse 2**

_All is lost_

_The music sings our demise_

_We are reborn again,_

_Alone to face the darkness_

Now that Zero was in Intoner mode, she could make out enough of her surroundings to tell that she wasn't beyond the grave, but in an extensive, underground cave. ' _There's a handful of people here, are they from the village?'_ While the cave showed all signs of death, there was an unusual lack of heartless in a place she figured would be squirming with them. _'Hopefully, the demon's just a regular demon so I stand a chance against it.'_

Zero walked around more, then started getting annoyed. "...Goddamnit. Where's this stupid demon?!" She whipped her head back to the villagers. "Don't tell me you fuckers lied to me!"

"No- no we swear! It's here- It's —"

Out of nowhere, a vine adorned with razor-sharp thorns wrapped around the same man she talked to earlier and he was snatched up into the darkness, then another villager was taken away soon after. Zero had a feeling she would be next so she preemptively readied her sword and sure enough, a vine was coming for her as well, but she cut through it before it could reach her.

For the next few seconds, blood-curdling screams echoed within the cave until it was followed by an eerie silence. Moments later, multiple vines shot from the darkness and this time, they were all coming for Zero.

"Fuck this shit!" With her field of vision fairly limited, all Zero could think of to do was keep moving and avoid the vines that were hunting her down. A strategy that she actually thought was working because the vines stopped pursuing her, but she ended up running into two heartless. "You two sure are late for the party!"

With how weak they were, Zero easily stomped them out, but it seemed their only purpose was to stall her so the vines could finally wrap around her body and trap her. As hard as she tried to break free, there was no escape from them so with little options left, she resigned to her fate of getting eaten alive.

Not that she cared much, her impending death was probably the last thing on her mind because strangely, all that occupied her thoughts were the last words Riku said to her.

_["I stuck around because I saw there was a light inside of you as much as you tried to hide it, but I guess I was wrong about that too."]_

' _What does he mean I have a light inside of me? Whatever, d_ _oesn't matter now I guess, not like I'll ever hear his stupid explanation anyway.'_

_'... I already know who I am. I'm less than zero.'_

_'I'm less than fucking zero.'_

—

" _Don't you get it? I don't give a damn about you."_

" _But...you told me that we would be together..."_

 _"Look, no hard feelings_ _███_ _, I just needed you to carry away more money, but now it's time for you to die."_

_Devastated, the little girl had to run away from the only person she thought she could call a friend._

_Still, she didn't resent her friend for betraying her. After all, how could she be so foolish as to trust another person?_

_It was her fault for being fooled and she vowed to never open her heart up like that again._

_And just when things couldn't get any worse for the little girl, she_ _ended up running into the angry men from the brothel._

" _Found you, you slippery little wench. Don't worry, we got tons of customers waiting for you."_

_"..."_

_"Next time you run away like that, we'll have to knock your teeth out and men won't like you anymore then."_

_The men snatched up the little girl, then dragged her all the way back to the brothel._

" _ZERO!"_

_When it seemed like the cruel world was closing in on her,_

_A young man cut down the darkness that was holding her captive and saved her._

—

Before Zero even knew it, she was in Riku's arms and she finally began to understand what he meant by there being a 'light' because his shined so brightly.

"...Why did you save me?! I didn't ask for any of this!"

"You don't have to. I already said you'd be too much trouble as a heartless."

"But how did you even find me?!"

"I heard your singing." He set her down, then motioned to the little girl running towards them. "Watch Claire for me...and you better not hurt her or I will end you."

"Yeah? Then hurry up and kill that thing. I don't have any patience for brats."

Claire stuck her tongue out. "Why do I have to be stuck with an ugly wench like you!"

"What the hell did you call me?"

"Try not to kill each other you two."

Riku's keyblade burned bright with a powerful flame that illuminated the entire cave. Now everyone could see the demon for what it really was; the Leechgrave heartless. Riku propelled his flaming blade at the Leechgrave and as it crawled from the ceiling to the ground, the keyblade sliced clean through several of its vines before returning to him.

The Leechgrave retaliated by shooting out poisonous gas from its bulb.

"Damn, that's not good!" Riku glanced back to Zero who looked like she was about to commit murder from getting her hair pulled by Claire. "Zero, get everyone out of here! The poison it's spitting out is deadly."

"Yeah, yeah." Zero started barking death threats at the villagers which cleared them out faster than he ever could've. She then picked up Claire by her leg and went to leave herself. "Hey, you better not die on me."

"I won't."

"Ugh, why can't you leave me with Riku! He's way better than you!" Claire whined.

"Shut up or I'll drop you on your head!"

With the two of them gone, Riku was left alone to finish off the Leechgrave. Esuna cured the poison so he could go all out without worrying about his health dropping, however, the Leechgrave wouldn't go down easily. Riku shot a Firaga spell directly at the hanging coffin that comprised its body, but it had no effect on it.

' _Its body's immune to regular magic? Wish I knew that before I used a third tier spell on it, I'll just focus on its legs for now.'_ He swiftly dodged the vines that were shooting out of the ground, then aimed his shotlock at the other vines supporting the Leechgrave's coffin body.

Multiple dark spheres burst from Riku's keyblade and showered down on the Leechgrave, taking out the last of its vines so all that was left was the coffin. He airstepped to quickly close the distance, then impaled his blade straight through its body.

When he pulled his keyblade out, dozens of hearts floated out of the coffin, their souls finally set free.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner to save all of you."

Riku left the cave and was greeted by cheers and applause from the villagers.

"Thank you kind wanderer for saving us! For saving our village!"

"Yes, you have our gratitude. Please, if there's anything we could give to you in thanks we would be happy to!"

"That's not necessary." He went over to Zero and Claire with the darkest look on his face.

"Yay! Riku's back!" Claire clung onto his leg.

He pat her on the head. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine now that you're here!"

Riku looked up to Zero who was awkwardly looking away from. "Zero, thanks."

"Whatever."

"So you ready to go? Sure Mikhail's worried about us by now."

"...I thought you hated me."

"No, I don't. Not when I see so much of myself in you. That's...that's why I can't turn my back on you."

There was the smallest hint of a smile on her face. "You must've been a pretty shitty person then, huh?"

"Not as bad as you, but yeah."

"Heh, well it is hard to top this mess. Alright, then let's get out of here, fuckface."

"Don't curse in front of children."

She crossed her arms. "Are you sure I remind you of yourself?"

"Aw, you're leaving already?" Claire gave Riku one last hug. "I...I really wish you didn't have to go. I'm gonna miss you!"

"I'm gonna miss you too." He hugged her back. "I'm sorry we couldn't find your parents...unless they're one of those villagers."

She shook her head. "No, but it's okay...they didn't want me anyways."

"Oh...I'm sorry to hear that."

"You don't have to be sorry for me, now that they're gone, I can live for myself."

"Sure you're going to be okay on your own?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She smirked. "I'd be more worried about yourself since you have to be stuck with your bitchy friend."

"That's it you little-" Riku held Zero back before she could wring her neck out.

Claire waved goodbye to Riku. "May your heart be your guiding key! I'll remember that!" With that, she ran off.

"Ugh, you got her to say your bullshit too," Zero said.

"Better than anything you'd say to her." He put his hands inside his pockets.

"I don't always talk about dirty stuff."

He raised his eyebrow in disbelief. "Really?"

"Okay, maybe I do. It's not my fault I haven't had it in so long..." She went quiet, contemplative. "Hey, before we leave, I need you to do something for me."

"Like what?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Zero led Riku to the outskirts of the village where the brothel was located. "I want you to burn this place down."

"What- why?"

"It's a brothel, not a goddamn orphanage! Just do what I say."

"What's a brothel?"

"You're really sounding like a virgin right now."

"...So you're not gonna tell me?"

"All you need to know is that I want it burnt down. It's something...for me."

"Fine."

"Just like that? Wish you were this easy for other things."

"I can smell the stench of darkness from all the way over here, that's why."

"You know you sound really fucking stupid when you say that."

"...Shut up." He lit the building on fire and it burned away into ashes within minutes.

_After burning away the reminders of her past,_

_The Intoner and the keyblade wielder departed the village, thinking_ _they left it in good hands._

_However, the sad part about this story is..._ _the heartless came back the very next day._

**Flowers for the Dead**


	4. "Everything and Nothing"

The Land of Mountains was as harsh as they came, the rocky terrain practically invited death to its doorstep. And the scarce amount of people who lived there could hardly call it 'living' either, they simply remained alive despite all odds. However, the ruler of the Land of Mountains knew nothing of such strife and struggle. Four, the Intoner who lived in the ivory tower, wanted for nothing except to see that her people were alleviated of their suffering. At least, that's what Four told herself anyways, but in reality, what she truly wanted was far less noble...

"Hello, I'm sure all of you are aware by now of the terrible demons that have ravaged our lands. As your benevolent ruler of the Land of Mountains, I will do everything in my power to vanquish those demons once and for all!" Turning away from the mirror, Four looked over to her own disciple, Decadus, who was standing idly beside her. "Well, what do you think? Was I being too formal?"

"I found your speech quite pleasant."

"Being 'quite pleasant' isn't going to cut it. I'm going to a war meeting after all, I must demand everyone's attention."

"Unnngh!" He groaned. "My ...humblest ...of apologies."

"Please, I hardly reprimanded you, so will you stop doing such untasteful things? I need you to be on your best behavior."

"Oooh, how you look at me with such disappointment and disgust in your eyes. And now you punish me for having my own salacious thoughts, ughh."

"Still your tongue, Decadus. I won't have such filth coming out of your mouth."

*knock-knock

"A visitor?" Four opened the door to her chambers, surprised to see one of her soldiers standing outside. "I don't believe I called for you. Is there something wrong?"

"Lady Four, there are guests waiting for you outside the castle."

"Guests? The Generals can't already be here, can they? I thought I scheduled the war meeting for tomorrow."

"Actually, one of them is claiming to be your younger sister. The Fifth Intoner as it would be, but you can never be too sure."

Her eyebrows knitted together. "Five's here? As if I don't have enough things to take care of. Come on Decadus, let's welcome our 'honored' guests."

As far as Intoners went, Four always considered herself to be among the most sensible of her sisters, falling only behind One. On the other hand, the furthest away from any notion of sensibility was Five, so she assumed her sister was just there to annoy her, not expecting to see her right arm was completely torn off.

"Oh my goodness Five, what happened to your-"

"Big sis!" Five squeezed the life out of Four like she wasn't down one arm, then let herself inside. "You know you should really teach your soldiers some manners or I'm gonna have to punish them myself~"

"Five..." Four began to say, but her words fell on deaf ears.

"Uunnnggh, punishment...please, I will accept any retribution, however cruel, on their behalf! Make it as harsh as you desire! I don't mind if you kick me, or even whip me! Kick me...whip me... whip... ooh! It would be my pleasure," Decadus said.

"Ooh my~ I see your disciple is still as kinky as ever." She brushed her hand over his wide chest then moved her hand up to caress his stubbly chin. "Stop by later tonight and I'll give you some real punishment, big guy."

"Five!" Four repeated. "What are you even doing here? As much as I love and cherish your ...company, don't you have the Land of Seas to rule?"

Five clasped her hands together. "Oh right, that's why I'm here! So you know those little black demons that One told us to stay away from? Well, I just couldn't help myself so I used them to bring me all sorts of goodies and one of them bit my arm off like a piece of meat!" She stuck her lip out, pouting. "And the worst part is they bit off my favorite arm so when I pleasure myself it won't even be half as good!"

"Ugh, have you no shame for the vulgar things you say?"

"Even someone as tight-lipped as you can't repress their desires for long. I'm willing to bet you pleasure yourself all night long and torture your poor little disciple. You can't hide it from me!"

"'Torture'...do not tease me so with such...unngh abhorrent...activities..." Decadus muttered.

"Why- I do no such things. How dare you make terrible accusations of me!"

"Accusations? You're the one who's blushing! Why don't you show me your collection of toys and we can have some fun tonight~"

"I swear you have the attention span of a small child but the mind of a dirty pervert!"

She crossed her arms, then looked Four up and down. "At least I don't have the chest of a small child."

"Mock me all you want, since I'm your older sister I will ignore your rude remarks and be the bigger person. Hopefully, you will follow in my footsteps as I set the example of a proper Intoner."

"Yeah, I'm willing to bet your stroke your ego about as much as your stroke yourself," Dito said

"You'd let your disciple speak to your own sister like that? Shame on you, Five."

"Aw, he just has a bit of a bite, don't you love it?"

Sighing, Four pinched the bridge of her nose, already at her wit's end. "Okay, since I'm clearly the only adult here—"

"Ooh the way you belittle me as if I'm not even here is just- uuungh."

"So is your whole schtick just being a pathetic masochist?" Dito asked

"Your scornful words are so ...ugh...degrading."

"I'll take that as a yes. I'm gonna get a lot of mileage out of this."

"Oh so am I, Dito. So am I," Five said.

"Will the three of you stop being horrible and just listen to me already," Four said.

"...Horrible..."

"Decadus!"

"Apologies."

"So let me get this straight. Five, the demons in your domain lost control, then started attacking you and you're here because you want me to get rid of them, right?"

"You're good at this!"

"Unfortunately I've also been having a bit of trouble with the demons. My soldiers have tried everything; killing them by sword, burning them with fire, human sacrifice..."

"Wait, human sacrifice?" Dito asked.

"Don't give me that look, it was for the good of the people!"

"Riiiiight."

"The point is none of the methods we tried worked because they all came back again in some form. At the war meeting, we'll discuss other possible solutions, but I fear they may be immortal beings."

"They're not immortal, we just heard about a guy who can crush them like ants," Five said.

"Excuse me?!"

"This is why you should go outside more often, big sis. There are tons of rumors flying around about a handsome young man traveling with Zero. They call him the 'demon slayer' but demons aren't the only thing I want him to slay~"

"A...demon slayer..." Her eyes widened. "Wait, this changes everything! Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"

She rubbed the back of her head. "Whoops, I guess it must've slipped my mind! My bad."

"Yes it is, maybe I'm the one who should be reprimanding you," She said sharply.

"Yes please, do your worst on me~"

"Not like that. Listen to me Five, this demon slayer has the ability to save my people and defeat the demons! One would be so impressed with me!"

"I do love a good vanity project!"

"Don't call it that."

"So will you be able to take my shrine back too? I miss all the toys I was forced to leave behind."

"One thing at a time little sister. First, we must find the demon slayer and get him on our side."

"How? With the power of song?"

"Even stronger than that; logic and reasoning!"

"I think you need to have logic and reasoning in order to use it," Dito said under his breath.

* * *

_["It's just... I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one?"]_

Cold water trickled down Riku's back, washing off the dirt and blood he accumulated during his time traveling with Zero. ' _Zero and Mikhail should still be asleep so at least I have some time to myself for now.'_

After he and Zero returned from the abandoned village, they set up camp along the edge of a rocky cliffside where the Land of Mountains stretched out before them. Fortunately, the pool of water where Riku bathed himself wasn't too far off from the campsite so he could quickly return without any of them noticing.

*ring-ring

"Huh? Wait isn't that my-" Rushing out of the water, he fished out his gummiphone from his pocket. ' _It's an unknown caller?'_

When he answered, a young woman he'd never seen before appeared on the phone screen and smiled at him. "Hello, Riku. It's nice to finally meet you!"

"I'm sorry, but do I know you?"

She adjusted her glasses. "Oh no, we haven't met before... formally that is. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Accord. I'll be meeting you in person soon, I just have to tie up a few loose ends in your world."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I believe you're familiar with the concept of 'world order'?"

"...How do you know about that?!"

"No need to worry about me, I'm but a humble Recorder. Let's just say you and your friend's adventures to worlds that were never supposed to meet have had some...let's just say unintended side effects."

"Unintended side effects?! What's going on, do I need to come back?"

"Oh no, we already got it handled, the reason why I called was actually just to give you a bit of advice. Riku, the world you're in is fated to fall into darkness and when that happens, a great evil will be unleashed. As you can imagine, that'll end pretty badly for all parties involved."

"What the- how can I stop it?!"

"We'll talk more about this later when I see you in person, but know this, even if you follow your heart...the world you're in is full of darkness. It'll be very tempting to give in, but if you do, you will stand to lose everything. No pressure or anything."

"Yeah...no pressure at all." He brushed his hand over his face. "It's okay...whatever happens, I won't lose sight of myself. I've lost everything before, I won't let it happen again."

"Then that's good to hear! Oh, and one more thing, there should be a wooden crate behind you. Could you let Zero know those are the weapons she ordered?"

"Sure."

"Thank you, sorry for being such a bother. I'm not always this doom and gloom but the situation demands it."

"No problem. I'll be expecting you soon, later." ' _Weird. I don't remember there being a crate here earlier, guess I've must've missed it.'_ He let himself dry off a little before slipping his clothes on and picking up the crate. When he returned to the campsite, Zero happened to be awake for once, although she had this dazed expression on her face like she was still half asleep.

"Zero? Didn't expect you to be up this early." He set the crate down. "Looks like you were right about the whole mail order thing, they got your weapons in here."

"Took long enough. Just put it over there."

"I'm surprised you aren't mad. Have a sudden change of heart?"

"I made my point pretty clear last time so I didn't think you'd ditch unless you had a death wish."

"Like I wouldn't cut you down before you got the chance."

"Would that be before or after you start crying about how 'wrong' it is to kill someone?"

"Because it's so wrong to have morals and a conscience?"

She scoffed. "Hasn't done me any favors. So...it's still bright and early in the morning, how about we go at it before we set off?"

"No thanks."

"Hey, your loss. I was giving you a free pass to not be a virgin..." Her face scrunched up in disgust. "Wait, don't tell me you're one of those committed types who save it until marriage."

"It's too early for you to already be giving me a headache."

"I should be the one complaining about you teasing me for so long. This is why I don't deal with virgins."

"That sounds like a personal problem."

"It's gonna be a 'you' problem soon if I have to keep getting off by myself." She stood up, then walked to Mikhail and kicked him in the head. "Get up, idiot."

"OW! You don't have to keep waking me up like that Zero!"

"Then start waking up by yourself!"

"Okay, I'll try really hard to next time!" He began stretching his legs out, then ended his morning routine with a loud yawn. "So Riku, you gonna make some more yummy food for us today?"

"Sure, why not? How about I catch some more fish from the river?"

Zero wrinkled her nose. "I'm not eating that again."

"You ate it fine yesterday."

"Because I was hungry."

"Well there aren't exactly a lot of animals around here, but if you can catch something, I'll cook it."

"That sounds like a shit ton of work. Just save dinner for tonight, it's time we hunt Four down."

"Zero, do we really have to go kill Four?" Mikhail asked.

"Not this again..."

"He has a point."

"We didn't kill Five and look at what happened to the Land of Seas, we were the ones who almost got killed that time."

"I know, but it's not right. You shouldn't stoop down to their level, older siblings are supposed to set an example for the younger ones," Mikhail said.

"Okay, let's pretend for a second, imagine there's a big pile of raw meat here."

"Oh yummy!"

"Now if you divided that meat among all the dragons in the world, you'd only get a little bit."

"That's right, just one teeny-tiny bite."

"But you'd rather have all the meat to yourself, right?"

"Hah-yeah! I'd want the whole big pile!"

"Well, I want to kill my sisters so I can have the world to myself. Make sense?"

"Nope. Still don't get it."

"So what'll you do when you have the world to yourself?" Riku asked.

"Yeah, are you gonna throw a big party?"

"No...I haven't thought that far ahead yet, but when I do have that much power then I won't have to worry about this shit anymore." She made a gesture to them. "Now let's head out, I got a sister to murder."

Riku slipped his hands inside his pockets, thinking to himself. _'Is Zero really doing all of this for a power trip? I might just have to stop her now if that's the case, but I need more information on her sisters and figure out if they're playing a hand in the darkness as well.'_

Between the steep cliff sides and frequent rock avalanches, the Land of Mountains posed an inherent danger unlike any other, but despite that, there wasn't anywhere near as many heartless creeping around as the Land of Seas. In fact, there were even soldiers left to oppose them as a testament to the darkness not yet having consumed the land.

"It's the demon slayer! Hurry men, let's take down the Intoner and secure him for Lady Four!" The soldiers formed an impassable barricade and charged at them.

"Did they just call me a demon slayer?"

"Wish I could get called a cool nickname that wasn't 'dummy' or 'idiot" Mikhail said, who'd already taken to the skies.

"Word gets around fast. Don't let the fame go to your head," Zero said.

"Not a chance." Riku shot a Blizzaga spell at the incoming soldiers, freezing them to the ground just as Zero was readying her sword.

"Ughh, do you always have to take the fun out of everything?"

"I need to figure out something." He melted down enough of the ice to uncover one of the soldier's heads. "Hey, what does your Intoner want with me?"

"La-Lady Four ...she w-wants you to get rid of tho-those d-d-demons..." He said between chattering teeth.

"She wants to get rid of the heartless? That doesn't seem too evil to me."

"How are you this gullible? They're brainwashed soldiers, dumbass. They'd eat Four's shit if she told them too."

"I'm aware, but there's a lot less heartless here so that has to count for something."

"So she has one decent thing going for her out of all the other horrible shit she's done. We have a fucking philanthropist in the making here."

"You're gonna have to give me more examples of her being evil than just the virgin thing."

"Wow. Spoken like a true virgin."

"You're as childish as your dragon."

"Oh _I'm_ the childish one, meanwhile you nag at me like an old lady for every other thing I say."

"Because you say such deep, insightful things all the time, right?"

"What, like you do? Right, I must've forgotten how deep and insightful lines like 'I can smell the stench of darkness' are. That's sure gonna go down in the history books."

He chuckled. "Alright, point taken."

"—Guys! Guys! Guys!" Mikhail landed down in front of them, incidentally crushing the frozen soldiers beneath his feet. "I have a huuuge problem! There's a bunch of those weird monsters in the skies and I can't get through!"

Zero crossed her arms, looking dead at Riku. "So what happened to there being less heartless?"

He shrugged, cracking a playful smile. "Guess I couldn't smell the darkness that well because of you."

"You need to work on your shitty 'jokes'."

"I thought that was a pretty good one." He hopped on Mikhail's back. "You coming Zero?"

"Not if you don't want me to kill you."

"Then let's meet at the next enemy stronghold over there."

While Zero continued along by foot, Mikhail soared through the skies. "Ha ha, you're pretty brave for standing up to Zero like that. If I talked to her the way you do she would've stabbed me a whole bunch of times!"

"It takes a lot more than empty threats to scare me."

"Like what?"

Riku stood up. "...I'll tell you later, we're under attack!"

A battleship brought to life by darkness with a swarm of air pirate heartless surrounding it advanced towards them. As the battleship opened fire at Mikhail, the air pirates closed in on them, ready to slash at the dragon with their cutlass swords. It was close timing, but Riku was able to use Reflega to protect Mikhail against the cannonballs and stave off the pirates.

"Wait a second, these guys are supposed to be pirates right? How come they're attacking us and not searching for buried treasure and stuff?"

"This falls in line with most pirates, trust me. Hey, see if you can get any closer to that battleship."

"You got it Riku!"

Mikhail spun around to avoid the initial swarm of air pirates. "Mikhail's fireball special comin' right up to serve you guys!" He shot a round of fireballs at the heartless to get them off his tail, then sped along to the battleship. "What'd you think? Pretty cool, right?"

"Nice! Think you can back me up while I finish the job?"

"You can count on me!"

Running all the way down to Mikhail's head, Riku dove off, then landed right inside the battleship where he lit it on fire. Once the vessel was burning ablaze, it flung him off and was now gunning for Mikhail.

"Riku!"

"I'm fine just focus on getting away from the battleship!"

Even though Riku was falling from the sky at an alarmingly fast rate, airstep warped him right back to the battleship and he made sure to slice it in half this time. While still in mid-air, Riku shot bolts of lightning at the remaining air pirate heartless, finishing them all off.

"Rikuuu!" Mikhail swooped down and caught Riku on his back. "Ha ha, I think we make a really awesome team!"

"Yeah, we sure do. Let's go check up on Zero and see how she's holding up."

"Knowing her I betcha she hasn't even broken a sweat!"

When Mikhail flew over to Zero, she was dripping wet with blood and in the middle of battling a giant Cerberus of all creatures. However, it didn't seem to be her own blood that was shed since the Cerberus was already down to two heads.

"Oh wow, look at the size of that pup!" Mikhail said. "You okay Zero? Me and Riku are here if you need any help!"

"Don't need it...and don't call this thing a pup!" She waited until the Cerberus snapped its row of knife-edged teeth at her to take a swing at its meaty neck. With her new sword equipped, Sinful Scream, the cutting edge was so sharp that it cleaved off its giant head without getting caught in bone or muscle and she bathed in a crimson red shower.

Now that the Cerberus only boasted a single head, it retreated rather than let Zero finish its execution, which meant she could expect to encounter it again.

"Whoa, that was scary! I was nervous the whole time," Mikhail said.

"Why? It's not like I was gonna lose." Zero took the time to wipe the demon blood off her sword so the blade wouldn't sully, but she was otherwise indifferent to her gory appearance. "Hey, what're you staring at me for, keyblade? We got ground to cover, come on."

"You're fine with all that blood on you?" Riku asked.

"Don't care. It'll wear off eventually."

"No wonder you don't smell good."

"You know I'm really missing the peace and quiet from when you two were gone."

"That's not true! If we're not here, then who would you have to talk to?" Mikhail asked.

"Preferably no one."

"Well, you're not great company either. So how far is Four away from here anyway?"

"No idea."

"...So you don't know where we're going?"

"I didn't say that. She's around here somewhere."

"Are you serious?"

"This is just how I do things so get used to it."

With Zero leading the way, their path through the mountains was paved by the blood of men and dismembered body parts, a sight that lingered of Riku's heart like a shadow. It didn't matter how many times Riku witnessed Zero slaughter men like pigs, the hundredth time was just as sickening as the first, even though he knew their fate could only end with death to her blade as a man or death to his blade as a monster.

Zero, on the other hand, gave not a second thought to the men she killed, viewing them as nothing more than the obstacles they were. However, she knew that look on Riku's face all too well, the look of someone who felt utterly powerless for the situation they were in. While she didn't care about his feelings, she did care about him pulling his own weight since he'd fallen back on the sidelines now that the heartless weren't involved.

"Hey, keyblade, how long are you gonna keep pouting like that? This could go by a lot faster if you helped me kill a few of these bastards," Zero said as she hacked away at another group of soldiers.

"I already know what you told me, but I still don't think it's right. I should be using my keyblade to protect people, not destroy them. I have to listen to my heart on this one."

"Oh my fucking..." She ripped her sword out of the last soldier's body, then went over to the Riku. "Look, maybe in whatever foreign land you come from, you might've been one of those annoying, self-righteous heroes but here that shit doesn't happen. So stop screwing around and fight, you're pissing me off."

"Everything I do pisses you off, doesn't it? Why don't you back off, Zero."

"Say that to me again asshole and see what happens!"

"I said back off!"

"That's it! I'm gonna kick your ass!"

They got right up in each other's faces, but before things could get ugly, Mikhail stepped in. "—Hey! Stop fighting you two! You guys are always arguing like an old married couple!"

"Stay out of this!" They both yelled

"Besides this bastard isn't going to live long enough to have a marriage!" Zero said.

"Is that supposed to be another one of your empty threats?"

"It's not an empty threat if I make it happen!"

Mikhail sighed. "Somehow I think I made things even worse..."

"Fuck this...you're raising my blood pressure."

Zero stepped back from Riku and walked towards the gates leading out of the area, but they slammed shut in her face, enchanted by a spell. She prepared herself for an inevitable attack, not expecting a portal swathed with darkness to appear before her and for the Cerberus to drag itself out like it was the gates of hell. And based on its ghastly appearance; tattered, pitch-black skin and yellow eyes, it did look like it crawled from hell and back just to reach her. Even worse, the Cerberus regrew the heads Zero previously cut down.

"Whoa! He's back!" Mikhail yelled.

"This fucker just won't give up! The hell is up with this mutt?!"

"Looks like the darkness got ahold of it," Riku said, summoning his keyblade.

"Oh so now you want to fight when they look fucked up enough for you!" Knowing there would be a tough battle ahead, Zero went into Intoner mode.

**Verse 3**

_Death follows as I soar through the skies_

_Love blossoms, forged by blood,_

_Made true by a song that is yet to be heard_

Zero charged at the Cerberus only for it to split into three individual demon dogs that darted all across the battlefield.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!"

"I'll take them down!" Riku tried to cast Stopga, but they were immune to it so he went for a Thundaga spell instead that stunned them long enough for Riku and Zero to unleash a counterattack. While Riku lodged his keyblade down one of the Cerberus dog's throat, Zero opted for her usual approach of slicing the head off.

The last Cerberus dog, in a desperate bid to fight for its life, lunged at Zero. She swung her sword at it, but it clamped down on the blade and threw her up in the air. Riku acted fast to pin its body to the ground as Zero switched to a different sword to cut through its neck. Although the blade didn't possess as smooth a cut as she would've liked it, its head fell to the ground like any other.

Disregarding the obvious danger, Zero pulled Sinful Scream out from its clenched teeth then walked away. "Hmph. I told you things would go by faster if you helped fight."

"Didn't take you as someone who liked relying on others."

She shrugged. "Hey, fighting's a pain in the ass."

Riku was about to join her when the Cerberus head suddenly launched itself forward, initiating a final attack on Zero because even while headless, it still had the power to bite. Riku threw his keyblade at it, but the moment the handle released from his grasp, the other Cerberus head that Zero sliced off also flew towards him.

"Riku! Watch out!" Mikhail yelled.

In that split second, it was either he call the keyblade back and let Zero get harmed, knowing he could've saved her or leave himself defenseless and a choice like that, he didn't even need to think about.

The Cerberus head bit down into Riku's arm, sinking its teeth into his flesh with the intention of ripping it off, but he wasn't going to let it. With his left arm, he summoned enough strength to slow down its momentum, just for a moment, which was all Zero needed to completely butcher its head into unrecognizable chunks of flesh.

However, with the damage it did to his arm, it was already too late. The skin on his arm turned an ash-gray color, like something out of a horror movie. While he still remained collected, he tried to use a Curaga spell on it to mend the wounds, but it had no effect and that's when everything started spiraling out of control.

There was blood. So much that it spilled out on the ground.

There was pain, but maybe he didn't feel it at first because he was in so much shock.

Or maybe because Mikhail started screaming and yelling and cursing. No, the cursing had to be Zero. He remembered that much.

He remembered her cursing at him, calling him a 'fucking idiot' over and over again until he felt like his ears would bleed out next.

When she pulled him over her shoulders, that's when he felt it. An intense, excruciating pain that hit him all at once, causing him to blackout.

.

.

.

That night, Riku woke up to Zero who was in the middle of bandaging his wounds. Her clothes were wet with what he assumed to be his blood and he started to feel lightheaded.

"I'm ... glad you're awake Riku," Mikhail said, on the cusps of falling asleep. It was late into the night, but he didn't want to close his eyes until he knew Riku would be okay.

"...Yeah." He tried again to use every healing spell in the book he could think of this fix his mangled arm, but none of them had any effect whatsoever, he couldn't move his arm or even feel it for that matter.

"Uh...that mutt...it really fucked up your arm." There was hesitation in Zero's voice as she continued to speak. "It's basically dead now...you might be better off just, you know, cutting it off altogether."

"I can't do that...ah-"

"Don't move so much," She said in a soft, almost motherly tone that he had no idea she was even capable of.

"Is this real..." The worlds fell out one after the other. Was it real? It felt real. It looked real. It was real. He just didn't want to believe it was.

After she finished tending to his wounds, she stood up, trying her damndest not to look at him, but Riku already knew that she blamed herself for everything. For that reason, he felt like he should've at least said something to her, but he couldn't find the right words to say. Neither could Zero for that matter, at least words that wouldn't come off as some shitty, half-assed excuse, so they shared a silent exchange and left it at that.

Zero put her supplies back, then made a weak gesture to Riku. "Don't move," She said again before walking away. She ended up going all the way down the river that ran throughout the mountains in order to wash his blood off her.

_The Keyblade wielder sacrificed a great deal in order to protect the Intoner._

_And what did she have to show for it other than the guilt eating away at her core?_

_But guilt alone wouldn't change his fate_

Zero stared at her reflection in the dark red water. ' _I can't have him be around me anymore. Not like this. I need to leave him or this can't end.'_

**Flowers for the Dead**

****

Riku with "The Flower"

****

Mutated Heartless concept

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The lyrics I use for the verses are from the English fan translation of Kuroi uta that I recontextualize a bit


	5. "A Heart Full of Holes"

**Four's Castle**

**-War Room-**

Four and her top generals were standing around a giant table that had the entire map of the Land of Mountains on it. There were several figurines placed in different regions on the map, each representing a different player at hand. "Zero is a tough opponent and she won't be giving up the demon slayer without a fight." Four used a plotting rod to move a figurine of Zero down the board. "This will be the path she takes to reach me, but along the way, I've set up a few decoy locations in order to stall her."

She moved two figurines to their respective locations. "General Beatrix will serve as the first line of defense at the underground base, followed by General Steiner who will be stationed at my castle. Your objective all remains the same; to apprehend the demon slayer unharmed and end Zero. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Commander Four!"

"—Mmm did I hear 'Commander'?" Much to Four's annoyance, Five barged inside and squeezed her from behind. "Someone likes powerplay, I did always take you for being the more dominant one! Oh and thanks for fixing my arm last night, I had so much fun with it!"

"Five! Don't tell me Decadus let you in!"

"Once my sweet little Dito threatened him, he was pretty much on his hands and knees before I even had the chance to seduce him!"

Four shot daggers at Dito who shrugged in response. "Don't blame me. That guy doesn't even know what a spine is."

"Just explain to me why you two are here when I specifically told you not to bother me during the war meeting?"

"I don't understand how you can live in this castle, it's so terribly boring! Even the erotica books you have were a total bore," Five said.

"D-Don't say that out loud! And how did you even find those I- actually nevermind. I think it's time for you to leave, little sister. You're being a distraction right now."

Four's pleas went in one ear and out the next as Five's attention was drawn to the strategy table. "Oooh what game are you playing in here? It looks like fun~"

"This isn't a game. I'm determining the fate of the Land of Mountains by using strategic planning, something you clearly know nothing of."

"Looks like a dumb board game to me. Of course, you'd waste your time on something stupid like this," Dito said.

 _'I'm this close to hanging that little freak if he says one more wrong thing to me.'_ "Actually Dito, strategic planning is why I still have my sovereignty intact. It's no wonder why the Land of Seas fell so easily, in fact, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner with such improper leadership running it."

"Ouch. Someone's in a grouchy mood today," Five said.

"Maybe because you barged inside while I was in the middle of a _war meeting_!"

"Aww, just forget the war meeting!" Five put her hands on her shoulders. "You need to loosen up a little dear sister, I mean when was the last time you didn't look so mildly annoyed at everything?"

"Before you arrived," She muttered.

"Hmm, what was that?"

"Nothing... listen to me. I promise that I'll spend time with you Five, but this is really important to me so I ask that you leave."

"But I could help you out with whatever board game you're playing! Or better yet, this table's large enough for me to lie you on your back and-"

"Absolutely not! See, this is your problem Five, all you ever do is flaunt your body around and say these nasty things because you have nothing else to offer! You're overwhelmingly incompetent, bothersome, and worst of all you mess everything up! I don't need you messing up my country too so get out of my face or I'll have my guards escort you out."

Five looked like she was about to cry, but Four didn't care, not in the slightest. After all the times Five relentlessly teased her for every little thing and made her feel like shit without a hint of remorse, she sure as hell wasn't going to feel sorry for her or her crocodile tears now that the shoe was on the other foot. Just to further cement her stance, Four turned her back to Five, making no effort to reach out to her as she walked out with Dito who now had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face.

"Ahem! I apologize for that brief distraction, now let's get back to business, shall we?"

The generals exchanged worried glances. "Uhh...yes Commander Four," They both said.

"So as I was saying..." She grabbed her plotting rod. "General Beatrix, I need you and your forces to set out for this location at once. General Steiner, you will remain here. This strategy is how we'll be able to both secure the demon slayer and eliminate Zero."

* * *

Zero stayed up the rest of the night, sharpening her swords while she watched over Riku. Aside from Mikhail's snoring and the sharp cry her blades emitted as she ground a stone across it, it was a relatively quiet night. Zero had no interest in making conversation with Riku, and she assumed he didn't either since he'd been keeping to himself for the better part of the night.

Still, she had her thoughts to keep herself busy amidst the silence of the night. ' _Damn_ _I never left a man I didn't even get a chance to fuck, but I have to do this. It's better off this way.'_

"—Hey, Zero," Riku said.

Not expecting him to talk to her, she took a few seconds to respond back. "...What do you want?"

"I know this is probably coming out of nowhere, but why is there a flower in your eye?"

"That is coming out of nowhere."

"Guess I just never thought to ask. Never seen anything like it."

"I was cursed."

"Must be a pretty tame curse if it's just the flower."

"Yeah, I fucking wish it was just that. What do you know about curses anyway?"

"I've had my fair share of experience."

"Huh, then you really were a bad kid. What's your deal? Had a fucked up childhood or something?"

"No, nothing like that. I was reckless and took my friends for granted, heh, although the reckless part of me hasn't changed much as you can see..."

"So you're telling me you have a stick up your ass for fun? How am I not surprised."

"Well, I had a rough last couple of years, but all the pain I've experienced made me who I am today so I don't regret it."

"...Of course you'd say some happy bullshit like that."

"Maybe you should listen to it so you can stop moping about me already."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

He spoke in a more serious tone. "Zero. You know, I don't blame you for what happened to me. I use the strength that I have to protect what matters."

No matter how were sincere his words were, Zero couldn't accept them. She couldn't be so foolish as to trust another person, not even him.

"...Then you're a bigger idiot than I gave you credit for."

"Whatever, guess there's no getting through to you. Thanks for taking care of my arm by the way..." With his eyelids growing heavy, he finally dozed off to sleep.

That's when Zero packed up her swords and other belonging. She gave Riku one last look, then tore her gaze away from him. ' _If I don't leave now, then I'll never be able to. This is the only way we both survive...'_

The next morning, Riku woke up to a completely deserted campsite. Both Zero and Mikhail were nowhere to be seen. "They're...gone?" It didn't take long for him to realize what was happening and suddenly his arm wasn't the only thing that was stinging, but he brushed it off like it was nothing. He couldn't wear his heart on his sleeve when the world needed him to be its savior. "I still need to find Four with or without them. I can't let anything stop me."

So with one debilitated arm, Riku left the campsite and faced the dangers of the mountains alone. Eventually, he came across a military base camp that was painted in blood and decorated with dead bodies. ' _Looks like she took no prisoners.'_ It was a morbid sight for sure, but he was all but desensitized to the gore at this point and was just waiting for the heartless to inevitably come. Which they did, and for the rare occasion, he had to summon his keyblade in his left hand rather than his right.

Riku swung at the heartless, but miscalculated their position by a wide margin, leaving him open for attack. He swiftly employed Dark Barrier to guard against the heartless then readjusted himself. ' _Damn, this one arm is gonna make things difficult. I'll just have to use magic for now until I get used to this.'_ However, when he went in to cast Thundaga, that too had no effect, neither did any of his other defensive spells. ' _I can't use any magic? But I couldn't have run out already, and if I did it would've recharged by now.'_

Riku was so taken aback by his apparent loss of magic that he didn't even notice the heartless were ganging up on him and had to roll back again to avoid their attacks. ' _This is bad, but nothing I can't handle.'_ He ran down to the side of the mountain where he jumped against the wall and tapped into his flowmotion powers.

Fortunately, those abilities still worked, so he kicked off the wall and slammed his keyblade down at the center of the heartless, generating a shockwave that knocked them all out.

' _If my magic isn't working, that probably explains why I couldn't heal my arm earlier.'_ He released his keyblade. _'But what could've caused this? Is this like a status effect or something? Well, whatever it is, I'm stuck with it, too bad I don't have any items on me.'_

"—Excuse me, sir!" A soldier crawled out beneath a pile of corpses and limped over to him. "You...must be the demon slayer, right? I saw you take out those monsters."

"And what if I am?"

He looked around. "Are...Are you still traveling with the Intoner Zero?"

"No, I'm on my own. Let me guess, you want me to go to Four? Lucky for you I was already on my way to her."

"Oh, how fortunate! Then I know a shortcut we can use to get to her castle quickly, it's an old route we soldiers used to take to get from base to base. Although it's a highly dangerous path so most stray from taking it."

"Let's go," He said without hesitation.

"Heh, then we'll make haste! And before I forget, name's Zidane! What's yours, demon slayer?"

"Riku."

"Well Riku, now we set off on our most daring mission yet!" Zidane showed Riku to a narrow, wooden plank path along the cliffside of a steep mountain. However, it was barely held together and looked like it would give way at any moment. "Hope you're not afraid of heights."

"Can't say that I am." He stepped forward, following behind Zidane.

"Ah, you're a brave young man, aren't you? Meanwhile, I'm nothing more than a coward. I should've died alongside the rest of my brothers."

"You're not a coward for trying to survive."

"I disagree. A soldier should fight and die honorably, not cower under a pile of corpses. That Intoner though, she just radiated evil, not at all like Lady Four. She's as kind and generous as they come."

' _He's brainwashed so I should take whatever he says with a grain of salt.'_

"That being said, I can see why you decided to travel with Zero for so long."

"Why's that?"

"She's hot," He said matter-of-factly. "Don't get me wrong, Four's cute and everything, but Zero's got that womanly charm to her and she's packing it in all the right places!"

Riku pressed his face into his hands, sighing. "You can't be serious. Didn't you _just_ say she radiated evil?!"

"Hey, I know a hot girl when I see it. So is that why your right arm is broken? I get it, just couldn't help yourself, huh."

"What? No, it got completely shredded by a heartless."

"Heartless...heartless, what an unsettling name. I take that's what you call those demons you slay."

"Yep. In fact, here they are now-" Riku summoned his keyblade as multiple Earth Core heartless emerged from the side of the mountain. Having limited space to fight on the wooden path, he ran up alongside the wall where managed to defeat most of the heartless, already learning a great deal from his previous fight. However, one of them slipped away from his blade and tackled into Zidane, causing him to crash straight through the planks.

"Zidane!" Jumping off the wall, Riku not only defeated the last heartless, but grabbed onto Zidane and airstepped the two of them back to safety. "Hah...you okay?"

"Yeah, I should be-AH!" He hunched over. "I- I apologize...that heartless must've done more damage to me than I thought. Just go on without me. Four's castle isn't much further."

"Forget it, I'm not leaving you behind." With one arm, he slung Zidane over his back and kept running up the mountain. Just as he was reaching the summit, another Earth Core heartless tunneled out from the wall, but this time it was massive in size, easily dwarfing the others.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" All he could do was try his best to evade its attacks and hope the end was in sight. Sure enough, the pathway did lead him into the courtyard of a gigantic castle, but the Earth Core heartless followed him and began wreaking havoc.

"Hey, you over there-" Riku handed Zidane to one of the nearby soldiers. "See to it that he gets medical attention and get the rest of the soldiers out of here while you're at it. This heartless is mine."

"Y-Yes sir! Roger that!"

It just so happened Four was present at the courtyard as well, trying her best to remain calm while everything she worked hard for dissented into chaos. "...First my sister and now this mess. Come Decadus, this is a job for an Intoner."

"I'm by your side always, Lady Four!"

While Four made her way over to the Earth Core heartless, Riku was already engaged in battle, getting a few slashes in before having to retreat behind some rubble when it retaliated. ' _It would've been defeated by now if I had my powers back. I just have to hit and run until it's down.'_ He stood up to fight back when he saw Four and Decadus trying their hand at slaying the beast. "What the- who the heck are those guys?!"

"Hey! You two need to get out of here!" He yelled out, running towards them.

Four turned around sharply to face him. "Excuse me, but who are you to decide whether or-" She choked on her words when she got a good look at his face. "Who...who are you? I don't believe I've seen you around here before."

"Is now really the time to be asking that?!"

"Uh...I-I'm sorry! You're right," She said quickly, blushing.

Giant chunks of rock flew past them, ending their short exchange and the Earth Core heartless had more of that attack where it came from. While Riku smashed the rocks hurled at him, Four hardly paid attention to the battle at hand because she could not take her eyes off him.

"Lady Four! Watch out!" Decadus took a rock in the chest for Four that knocked the wind out of him, and in return, stepped over him to keep her gaze fixated on Riku.

"Unnngh...not only do I suffer the writhing pain from the blow I just took...but you go as far as to show a complete and utter lack of concern for me... It's so oooohh~"

"Decadus if you don't collect yourself right now I'm going to pun- actually, hee hee, I'm going to treat you very kindly and with the utmost respect!"

"No a-anything but that! Or is denying me the rightful punishment I deserve another form of torture? Oooh, how you toy with my feelings is just so unghhhh!"

"What's wrong with that guy? Did he get hit in the head?" Riku asked.

"No, he's just deranged. You can ignore him."

"Please...I would want, ungh, nothing more than for my existence to be ignored," He groaned.

"Look, I think both of you need to leave! I can handle this!"

"I-I can't do that. No way I'm letting you do this alone!" Finding the heartless a formidable enough foe, Four went into Intoner mode.

**Verse 1-4**

_I must always kill my wandering heart._

_For all it brings me is shame._

_I must hide myself from the world,_

_Until the day I disappear._

Once a dull, green glow radiated from Four, she left Riku's side to scale up one of the castle watchtowers in order to reach the top of the Earth Core, then began clawing at its face. Riku followed suit, also using the watchtower to kick dive off of it and bash his keyblade on its head. When the Earth Core started to snap at them, Four jumped back and sung an incantation.

"Shield of the ancients! Armaros!" A giant force field manifested in front of them that deflected the Earth Core's attacks. The protection it granted allowed for Riku to deal out a devastating final blow with Zantetsuken, slicing the enemy in an impossibly fast sword strike that freed its heart. Four watched it all play out in real-time, amazed not only by Riku but of the strange sword he wielded that had the power to fell such a beast. ' _I've never seen anyone destroy those demons like that, could he be the demon slayer?'_

Four ran over to Riku, then bowed her head down. "Excuse me, I ...I wanted to thank you for vanquishing that demon and...apologize for my rudeness earlier."

"No problem. It's my job to defeat the heartless."

"So it's true. You are the so-called 'demon slayer' I keep hearing about."

"That's what they've been calling me."

She clasped her hands together. "This is perfect! It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Four, the ruler of the Land of Mountains!"

"Wait- you're Four?!" His expression dropped down almost immediately from the revelation. "So you're one of the sisters Zero wants to kill- but you're not at all the sleazy person I imagined you to be."

"I'm sorry, _sleazy_?! Is that what my big sister really thinks of me!"

"Well it doesn't matter what you look like." He turned his keyblade to her. "You're still brainwashing your soldiers and having them die on your behalf!"

She crossed her arms. "I- I do no such things! My soldiers die for me because they believe in me as their ruler. Besides, Zero is the one who's killing them, not me, so really you should be placing the blame on her for their deaths."

"So why is she after you and the rest of your sisters? There must be a reason why she wants you all dead."

"Trust me, I've wondered that myself for the longest, but the Zero I knew wasn't always this cruel. She was once a kind, gentle woman who dearly loved her sisters and it's silly but... I believe _that_ Zero is still alive in there somewhere."

He scoffed. "You're wrong about her...she has a heart full of holes and I'm starting to see the family resemblance."

"Ugh, and what's that supposed to mean? You know nothing of me!"

"I can sense all the darkness inside your heart and the heart never lies. There's no way I'm helping another one of you Intoners again." Then he walked away.

"No, wait, please! Please don't go!" She put her hand over her chest. "I promise that despite whatever preconceived notions you have of me, my intentions are true and just! I want nothing more than to bring peace to these lands by destroying those demons. They've terrorized my people for so long and all I want is to see to their safety! But the only way for that to happen is if you help me!"

Pausing, he looked back at her and her pleading eyes that were on the cusp of tears. He sighed then rubbed the back of his head. "...I'll probably regret this but I will help you defeat the heartless because of my duty as a keyblade wielder, nothing more. And when they're gone, I'm gone too."

"Thank you, truly. I'm indebted to your kindness, demon slayer."

"You can just call me Riku."

"As you wish Riku. Now, please follow me to my castle and we can get everything situated there." _'I won't lie, this Riku guy is cute, but he has an attitude and is so disrespectful! Apart of me just wants to put him in his place, but apart of me feels different? Practically everything about Decadus turned me off, but he on the other hand...'_ She shook her head. _'Honestly, who am I even kidding?_ _Riku may look like a charming prince, but o_ _nce he sees Five, he won't even think twice about me. Not that I care, as if I want to be taken advantage of!'_

As they went inside the castle and walked down the entrance halls, it wasn't long before a giant mess made itself apparent. "Ugh, look at this! Decadus can you— oh right he's still pathetically lying outside. Looks like I have to do everything myself around here!" Four grumbled as she picked up the empty food canisters left discarded on the ground. "I apologize, my castle is usually in a presentable condition, but my company doesn't know how to clean up after herself!"

The trail of food containers led them inside the kitchen where Five was in the middle of cooking something that both looked and smelled like death. "Why hellooo Four, I've been expecting you!" She cooed before catching sight of Riku. "Mmm, who's that handsome young man you brought with you? He's quite the catch for someone of your league."

Not appreciating the backhanded compliment, Four stomped over to her. "Shut up! And what're you doing?! Why are you making such a mess?!"

"Aw, I just wanted to make an apology dinner since I made you really upset at the war meeting!"

' _She hardly looks apologetic, just seems like some sorry excuse to mess everything up again.'_ But Four kept her negative thoughts to herself, choosing instead to cut her sister some slack just so she wouldn't cause a scene in front of Riku. "...While I appreciate the gesture, the ingredients you're mixing together are bonafide poison. You're going to make us all extremely sick or worse!

"Oh nonsense big sis, you simply have no taste! I guess your sex life isn't the only thing you're not adventurous about."

"That's it!" Four shoved Five out of the way and took control of the cooking. "I'll prepare dinner myself so you don't kill us all!"

"No way! This is my apology dinner, I even made all of your favorite foods!"

"None of these are my favorite foods! How many times do I have to tell you I don't like fattening things!"

"I don't know sis, maybe if you ate more fattenings things, you'd have a body worth bragging about."

Either Five didn't know how to be apologetic or she was being passive-aggressive on purpose just to get back at her. Whatever the reason, Four disregarded her attempt to save face in front of Riku and started arguing with her. Their argument soon erupted into an all-out war with the kitchen becoming a battlefield where pots and pans were getting thrown at each other like ammunition and grenades of glass plates were shattering on the ground.

The dining table remained a grey zone as the two sisters battled it out, Dito enjoyed every last bit of the action while Riku was growing more concerned.

"Are they okay? Should I step in?" Riku asked. "They're throwing knives at each other now..."

"Yeah, they're fine, this is pretty normal behavior for siblings and those two fight like this _a lot._ " Dito rocked back in his chair. "But man is it great watching them go at each other's throats! I'd enjoy it while it last, this is free entertainment right here!"

"Are you their younger brother?"

"God no, I'd fuckin' hang myself if I were related to those two. I'm just Five's disciple, unfortunately. Can't get any worse than this."

"Wait- Five?! So that blonde girl over there is the ruler of the Land of Seas?!"

"Yep. Why, got some business with her?"

Ever since his departure from the Land of Seas, Riku's resentment for Five only grew more intense and deep-seated. Now that he finally stood before the woman he vowed to defeat, that resentment grappled his heart and wouldn't let go. He rose from the table, a dark aura surrounding him that drastically changed the atmosphere of the room. Dragging his keyblade against the floor, he slowly approached them, his unsettling presence alone was enough to make Four and Five stop fighting with each other.

Incapable of reading the room, Five licked her lips in delight. "You just couldn't wait, now could you? Neither could I. I've been eyeing you the whole time you know, just the thought of all the back-breaking fun we're going to have together makes my thighs ache~"

Riku squeezed the handle of his keyblade. "So you're the person who destroyed the Land of Seas...and you don't even care, do you?"

Even though he looked dead serious, Five still played it off. "Sorry, but I haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about. Now let's get back to what we were talking about before, hm?"

"The heartless- so many people died because of them...because of you! Doesn't that matter to you?!"

"Right... and the heartless are?"

"Those creatures you call demons. I saw what you did to your soldiers and it was sick! Don't you have anything to say for yourself?!"

"Ooh right, those naughty little demons! I lost control of them a while ago so it's not my problem with what they're doing anymore."

"...Wrong answer." In a fit of rage, he swung his keyblade at her.

Surprisingly, the one who intercepted the attack was Four, who held her claw over the blade. "Stop it Riku! You don't know what you're doing! She's a rotten sister, but she's still my family!

"I know exactly what I'm doing! I'll defeat Five and make sure she never uses the heartless to hurt people again!"

—

Meanwhile, Zero was deep within enemy territory, throwing herself at hordes of soldiers and cutting them down one after the other. Which she enjoyed since it was the only thing to keep her mind from wandering back to Riku, but Mikhail certainly wasn't any help in that regard.

"Wow, Riku's super bad at this game! He hasn't even caught up to us yet! You think he got lost or something?" Mikhail asked, flying above Zero.

"That's the idea."

"Well I miss Riku, it's not the same without him..."

"What, am I not good enough?"

"No-No I didn't say that! He just brought a different dynamic to the group, that's all."

"Look at you saying big words."

"Ha! Thanks, I learned it from Riku!"

"Of course you did. Well I say to hell with him, I don't need that chickenshit nagging in my ear all the time." She kept on slashing through soldiers until she encountered a Gigas that stomped through a giant wooden gate. "Great, this guy again? They must be getting lazy if they keep reusing this same fucking enemy type."

"Don't worry Zero, I'll back you up!"

"You shouldn't have to tell me, just do it you shit-for-brains!"

While this Gigas was fortified with bulkier armor and even had a metal club to swing around, it was still slow and stupid just like any other Gigas so Zero had no trouble getting plenty of hits in on the beast. Even Mikhail was contributing, firing an onslaught of fireballs that occasionally hit its target. However, his aim seemed to be getting sloppier as the battle progressed because he nearly hit Zero by accident. "Damn it, how the hell are you not landing every hit?! This thing is barely moving an inch!"

"Sorry, I'm trying really hard to, but I can't concentrate!"

"I can't concentrate either if I have to worry about getting burnt to a crisp!" Growing frustrated, Zero suddenly got the idea to just chop off the Gigas' legs altogether, making it fall flat on the ground. She then carved her sword through its thick flesh until it stopped flailing its body around.

Figuring its lack of body movements meant it had to be dead, she turned to leave, but just like before, the heartless held the Gigas' heart hostage. While the darkness didn't make it grow bigger, it did drastically increase its fighting capabilities to truly turn it into a demon.

"Fuck this! Let's go, dragon!" Cutting her losses, Zero made a mad dash to the bridge connecting the other half of the fortress, but an impassable barricade stood in her way. She whipped her head back and the Gigas heartless was already hot on her trail. "Fuck, a barricade! Well, if this is how it ends...then it was a shitty life anyways."

"Zero! Don't give up on life just yet! Let me help out!"

"Go for it."

Mikhail shot a charged up fireball at the barricade, but ended up destroying the entire bridge making Zero fall to her death anyways.

"YOU DUMBAAAAAS!"

"Aaah! Zero!" Mikhail flew down to catch her and she 'thanked' him by sticking her sword right in his head.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow! You stabbed me! It hurts! Get it out! Get it ouuuuut!"

As if the situation wasn't bad enough, the Gigas heartless landed on Mikhail too and now everyone was falling down.

_And so, the Intoner and her dragon fell to their death_

_But, in the Intoner's own words 'it was a shitty life anyways'_

**Flowers for the Dead**

**Story End**

"I'M NOT FUCKING DEAD YET!" Zero unstuck her sword from Mikhail's head and tried stabbing the everloving shit out of the Gigas heartless, but since her regular attacks weren't working, she went into Intoner mode.

**Verse 4**

_The black flower blah blah blah_

_Is the forbidden voice of death or whatever._

_Come on let's just get on with it already!_

With the power she gained through song, Zero overpowered the Gigas heartless, shoving it off into the river just in time for Mikhail to rebound and fly back up into the air.

"Whew, that was a close one, huh?"

"It didn't have to be if you weren't such a fucking idiot!"

"Hmph! You don't have to be so mean about it! I tried my best!"

"Stop using the same goddamn excuse for everything." Zero hopped off his back and finally landed on the other side of the bridge.

"You know if Riku were here, none of that would've happened! Now that I'm thinking about it, playing hide n seek with him was a really bad idea, I think we should just go back and try to find him instead."

"Forget about him, we need to keep going, Four's waiting."

"What- but why? Riku's our friend and he could be in a lotta trouble right now, we can't just abandon him!"

"I don't care. He was never my friend in the first place."

"That's not true, you really liked him!"

"Not for the reasons you're thinking of. Besides... I'm the last person he wants to see. Trust me."

"But why? Riku liked you a lot too, he saved you all those times, remember? So we should do the same for him!"

"No. That was then and this is now. And now, all I care about is killing Four, nothing more. So drop it."

"Well if you wanna be a grouchy pants about everything then fine, I'm just gonna look for Riku by myself! He might be around these mountains somewhere."

"Whatever, just don't wander off. I'm going into this underground base and I better see you on the other side by the time I get out or I'm stabbing you again, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah."

She glared at him. "Try that again."

"Er- uh, yes ma'am!"

"Better."

Zero stormed inside the grimy underground base and unleashed hell through the blade of her sword. ' _Damn that dragon. I don't know why he thinks that I ever liked that asshole or thought of him as a friend. All he did was just get in the way and cause more shit than fix them!'_

_["Zero. You know, I don't blame you for what happened to me. I use the strength that I have to protect what matters."]_

"No, you don't! I don't fucking matter, you're fucking lying to me! You're a fucking... liar." Without being aware of it, Zero killed every last soldier in the underground base and was just hacking her sword away at an already dead corpse. Even though she tried her best to detach herself from Riku, it didn't matter, she wasn't going to forget him anytime soon like she did with so many others and it sucked because now he was just another thing for her to constantly feel shitty about.

"...fuck." Zero sat down on the ground, it was still warm from the soldier's blood and sticking to her legs, but she didn't care. As filthy as it was, at that moment, she thought of only one thing and wanted only one thing. She started feeling up her body, her hand stroking past her breasts, then she moved her hand down further to inbetween her legs.

_Now that the Intoner and Keyblade wielder were separated,_

_They no longer had each other to rely on._

_One sunk further into despair as they battled alone in the mountains_

_While the other sunk further into darkness, pursuing the Fifth Intoner out of revenge_

_But neither would find what they were truly looking for..._

**Flowers for the Dead**

* * *

Really bad memes that will only make sense after you read the chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zero sings each verse of the song so I promise I'm not being lazy for this one.


	6. "Vacant Noise"

"Dun-dun-dun! I'm Mikhail, and I'm from a uhhh, far-away land where I'm the strongest dragon ever in history! Yeah I like that! And I'm on a super important mission to find my lost friend Riku and nothing's gonna stop me!" Mikhail soared through the skies, weaving past mountain tops and flying over falling rocks in search of his missing friend. However, as he was circling back to return to Zero's location, he ran into another horde of air pirate heartless.

"Uh-oh, danger approaches the mighty hero dragon Mikhail! Not to fear, time for my super powerful fireball! Take this!" Mikhail shot a giant fireball at the heartless enemies, his fire destroying their physical forms. "Ha- ha yeah! Burn baby!"

He swooped around. "Aw, I wish Riku and Zero could see me in action! Oh well, maybe that fireball was enough to get Riku's attention!"

But the only attention it got was the arrival of multiple battleship heartless that formed an air blockade around him. "Uh-oh!" As he dove down to avoid fire, the heartless chased after him, blasting him with a barrage of cannonballs. While he tried his best to evade them, a cannonball ended up striking his right wing, inflicting enough damage to force him to crash into the side of a nearby mountain.

"Uhh...not good..." The fleet of battleship heartless loomed over him and as they readied their cannons to fire, a mysterious swordswoman sliced all the vessels in one fell swoop. With the heartless defeated, for now, the swordswoman approached Mikhail, bending down to caress his scales. "Are you alright, dragon?"

"Y-yeah I am, thanks a bunch stranger!"

"Stranger? That would be General Beatrix to you." She removed her helmet, revealing the face of a young, attractive woman. "So what of your wing? It seems those beasts inflicted quite the wound on it."

"Oh, yeah...it got hurt a little but nothing I can't handle!"

"That's good to hear. Although I must say, I haven't seen many dragons in these mountains, are you lost perhaps?"

"I'm not lost, I was actually looking for my friend Riku! Have you seen him, he's got silver hair and uses a really weird sword that kinda looks like a key!"

"-Wait, are you talking about the demon slayer?"

"Umm I think so, I remember someone calling him that before. Does that mean you've seen him?!"

She paced around. "No, but if you're searching for the demon slayer that must make you the Intoner Zero's dragon, correct?"

"Yep! That's me!"

"...Then you have my deepest apologies because now I must apprehend you."

* * *

After Zero finished, she stumbled out of the underground base, but Mikhail wasn't on the other side waiting for her like she ordered. "...Damn it! Where the hell are you, dragon?! I said I was gonna kick your ass if you weren't here!"

However, no matter how much she called out for him, all she did was garner unwanted attention from the enemy. The drawbridge connecting the other half of the underground base lowered down and a platoon of soldiers crossed over to fend off against her.

"...Goddamnit, I'll just have to keep going."

This time around, the soldiers were putting up more of a fight than she was used to. Gone were the days of Zero passively cutting through men with little effort, now she had to dodge a few attacks and even wait for an opening to strike, nothing she ever did prior with the regular old fodder soldiers.

"I have to say, I'm actually impressed. Usually, you guys are pissing yourselves whenever I come around," Zero taunted as she clashed blades with a soldier.

"Such cowardly actions are beneath the soldiers who serve under General Beatrix!"

"Ah, so your general's a broad?"

"Don't refer to our general with such a derogatory term!"

"You serious? I could've just called her a bitch." Knocking his sword out of his hands, she stabbed him in the chest, then had to quickly retreat in order to avoid a sword strike from behind.

"Silence you wench! Hiyaaaa!" The same soldier who tried to stab her in the back came charging for her. Rather than confront him head-on, she tripped him, then killed him while he was down.

"Damn, my arm already hurts from fighting those guys. This is gonna be such a pain in the ass..." Zero broke into the latter portion of the underground base and while it was just as grimy and filthy as the last one, she didn't remember it smelling so repulsive. _'God, it smells like unwashed ass. Either these soldiers don't bathe or my dragon's down here with them.'_

Once Zero got through fighting a few more bouts of soldiers, she reached a dungeon where Mikhail was being held captive under iron chains. "Waaahh! Zero, I knew you'd come to save me!"

 _'I hate being right all the time.'_ She dragged her sword over to him. "How the hell did you manage to get captured?! I can't leave you alone for a goddamn minute..."

"H-Hold on Zero! Watch out!"

Zero jerked head back, narrowly avoiding the blade of a sword as it glided mere inches past her face. The sword lodged itself into the back wall, where top General Beatrix landed on the handle to mark her flashy arrival. "My, my, you're much faster than I thought, Intoner."

"-There she is! That's the nice lady who captured me," Mikhail said.

"You're calling this whore 'nice' for capturing you?!"

"I'm certainly more tolerable than you are." Beatrix jumped down then removed her sword from the wall and pointed it to Zero. "I commend your valiant effort against my men, but allow me to shatter your delusions of grandeur. Your pathetic powers are useless against me, and you will-"

Zero made the first move on Beatrix right as she was in the middle of her long-winded introduction and not only was Beatrix able to maneuver past her sword, but she instantly redirected her momentum in order to parry the Intoner's attack, forcing her into a defensive position instead.

"What a poor display of swordsmanship," Beatrix said.

She rolled her eye. "I rather stab my eardrums with a fork than listen to you stroke your ego."

"I see, then I suppose my actions will have to speak for themselves!" She knocked Zero's sword out of her hands, then followed up with a sword slash that cut diagonally across her chest.

"Zero, don't let her win! I believe in you!" Mikhail said.

"Your dragon is quite annoying, but once I claim your head I suppose he'll make a good companion."

"That's...an awfully cocky thing to say for someone who's about to die!" Pulling out Sinful Scream, Zero threw all of her weight into a counterattack, but just like before, Beatrix effortlessly dodged her sword as if her blade was moving in slow motion.

Although she missed the first time, Zero was dead set on connecting her attack and started aggressively pursuing Beatrix. Which was a bad move on her end because she left herself wide open and the General took full advantage of her sloppy defense to etch several deep cuts across her body, tattering her skin and clothes.

Zero's inner thoughts ran frantically as she was now dripping wet with blood that for once, was her own. ' _Fuck, if I didn't waste my Intoner mode earlier this bitch would've been no problem. I need to think of some other way to kill her.'_ In a desperate bid, Zero relented on her attacks just so she could stick her sword in the ground and fling dirt in Beatrix's face.

"Wow...talk about fighting dirty," Mikhail said.

"How underhanded, I expect nothing less of you." Even with her being temporarily blinded, she still was adept enough to guard against Zero's incoming attack and they locked swords once more. "Is that all? You must take me as an amateur if you think your childish antics will work on me."

"God I wish you'd shut up."

"Then try giving me an actual challenge." Beatrix pulled back. "Oh but I fear that's something you're not capable of. Why don't I end this pitiful encounter once and for all, Intoner." She began darting around Zero at lightning-fast speeds, disorienting her. Then in one fatal move, she stabbed Zero's chest.

Mikhail struggled under his chains. "ZERO! NOOO! You- you can't die! You can't!"

Beatrix pulled her sword out. "What did I tell you Intoner, you were never any match for me from the start."

In her dying moments, Zero put her prosthetic arm on the General's shoulder and looked her dead in the eye. "You're the one...who's dying." Catching Beatrix completely off guard, her eye flower grew to a massive size and an arm drenched in blood emerged from its delicate petals.

There was a genuine look of horror on Beatrix's face as the woman she previously thought she killed was now sprouting out from her head like some kind of eldritch monster. "Wh...What the fuck are you?! You must be a demon!" She stumbled backward, her composure falling apart by the seams as the fear set in.

"Heh...you look like you're about to piss yourself." Picking up her sword from off the ground, Zero walked over to Beatrix, her footsteps leaving bloody imprints on the ground. The General tried in vain to hold her sword out in front of her, but Zero merely pushed it to the side and brutally stuck her sword straight into her skull.

"Now die."

What followed next was Zero repeatedly stabbing Beatrix and spitting out a storm of words so vile that they couldn't be transcribed to text with a shred of dignity left intact. After Zero got all of her anger out, she nonchalantly went over to Mikhail like she didn't just mentally scar the poor dragon.

"Wow Zero, you're...super scary..."

"She shouldn't have pissed me off." She broke Mikhail free of his chains, but he didn't move from his position. "What the hell are you doing?! Get up!"

"Uh, can we just rest here for a little while?"

"No. Get your lazy ass up, we still have ground to cover."

"I...can't do it."

"What're you talking about?"

"..."

"Answer me. I don't have all day."

Mikhail stretched his wings out as far as he could, showing her the injury he sustained.

She shook her head, annoyed. "You got yourself hurt too, dummy? What the hell am I gonna do with you."

"I...I'm sorry Zero. I didn't mean to get myself hurt or get captured, I just really wanted to find Riku. Y-You're not gonna leave me too, are you?"

"Of course not. Why would you say that?"

"'Cause...that's the reason why you don't wanna go back for Riku, right? His arm got all messed up and now my wing's messed up so... I thought you wouldn't want me anymore since I'm kinda useless now, you know?"

As if Zero didn't just go through a life or death battle, she was now faced with her toughest challenge yet and Mikhail had already dealt her a devastating blow. Zero was so taken aback, that she didn't even know how to begin to respond at first. "No, that's not..." No matter how she looked at it, there was no good way to explain her actions that wouldn't make it sound ten times worse, but she went for it anyways. "It's complicated, but I didn't leave him because I thought he was useless...things just didn't work out in the end."

She let out a sigh. "...And even though you're fucking incompetent, you're not useless."

"Y-you really mean it Zero?"

"I'm not repeating myself."

"So what is it then if you don't think Riku's useless?"

"Didn't I say it was complicated?"

"Well, it wouldn't have to be if you told me."

"That's not how it works. Just shut up and stop asking questions." She changed the subject. "So...I guess I'll set up camp here and then we'll go to Four's castle tomorrow. At least now I'll have time to clean myself up."

"Alright, I should be okay no problem by then! Hey, I know, since we're gonna be stuck here together for a while, I can share some good advice with you!"

She snorted. "Advice from you? I think I'll pass."

"Hey- hey hear me out! A wise person once told me that as long as you listen to your heart, then you can't go wrong!"

"You know what I think you're onto something!" Zero said in a heavily sarcastic voice.

"Really Zero?!"

"Yeah- in fact I think my heart's telling me something right now!"

"Oh-oh, what's it saying?!"

"For you to shut the hell up and stop bothering me."

"Wow...your heart's kind of mean, no offense."

"None taken. And stop saying that stupid corny shit Riku pulls out of his ass. It's annoying."

"Sorry..."

—

Following Riku's initial attack, Five managed to slip away so he left the kitchen in pursuit of her, leaving just Four and Dito.

"Oh no...this isn't good. Not that Five doesn't deserve it, but I can't leave her to die!" Just as Four was about to chase after them, she noticed Dito was still relaxing in his chair. "Why are you still here?! She's _your_ Intoner, you're supposed to stay by her side at all times!"

"Yeah, yeah, I was working my way up to it." He slowly got out of his seat and then pushed in his chair and then grabbed his spear and then-

"HURRY UP DITO!"

"I heard you the first time, god, and here I thought you actually wanted your sister dead."

"It's...complicated, but we can at least try to save her. That way if she does end up dying, I'll at least have a clear conscience about it."

"Ah, there it is. Your classic fucked up reasonings."

"Ugh, come on you imp, we can't waste another second!"

At the other end of the castle was Riku, who easily tracked Five down thanks to her smell of darkness being particularly foul. Now that she was within range, he threw his keyblade at her for a strike raid attack. "You're through, Five!"

Five did manage to dodge his onslaught of strike raid attacks, mostly due to Riku still not having his aim down yet, but being quick on her feet helped too. Although her luck was running out as they were nearing a dead end. "I'm used to men chasing after me, but this is a bit overkill, even for me! Luckily I know just what to do to get him under my spell!"

Skidding back on the ground to meet Riku, Five unleashed her power of song directly at him. "...That should've done the trick!" Her face broke out into a wide, devilish smile as she approached him. "Oh my you've been such a naughty boy, but don't worry, you're going to be making it up to me _all_ night long~"

Without hesitation, Riku slashed her across the chest, spilling her blood.

"My song...it didn't work?" She fell down to her knees, bleeding profusely onto the ground. "How'd you manage to...resist my seductive powers?"

Riku's gaze pierced through her like a knife, but just as he was raising his sword to her head, something that had fallen from her person caught his eye. "What's this?" He picked up a little girl's doll, then after he read the tag, he finally looked at Five with eyes that saw her. "This is yours?"

"It didn't use to be...I just held onto it." Five felt herself getting embarrassed that the unabashed confidence she never let herself waver from could so easily be shattered by just a look. She tried to laugh it off at first, but she could barely muster a smile."...It's nothing, really. It's just a toy."

"No, it means something to you, that's why you didn't let it go."

"Like you'd know anything about me."

"...I destroyed my home too once before and uprooted so many lives. I think that's why I'm so angry because all I see in you are the stupid mistakes I already made." He squeezed the doll, then threw it back to her. "Do you get it now? There are a lot more lost dolls like that one because of what you did."

While Five stared at the doll, the pieces started to fall in place in her head. "It was...me?" Unintentionally or not, she realized that she inflicted that same, inescapable feeling of longing for her own father onto countless other little girls and it made her burst out into tears.

At long last, Four and Dito finally made it to the scene just in time to witness Five bawling on the ground.

"Oh shit, wasn't expecting this," Dito said.

"I'm the worst, most terrible person alive! I deserve to DIE!"

He shrugged. "And there you have it. She said it, not me."

Four marched over to Five with the most annoyed look on her face. "For god's sake, how are you still this insufferable when you're crying? Pull yourself together!"

She clung onto her sister's legs. "I don't know if I can go on like this! Waahhhh!"

Covering his ears, Dito turned to Riku. "God, what'd you say to her to make her start blubbering like a whale? She's never lost her shit like this before."

"I can tell, she acts like a child." He went over to Five. "Hey, I get you're upset, but crying's not going to solve anything. We need to keep going and defeat the heartless so no one ever has to get hurt again."

"Riku's right, the damage you did to your people is irreparable so there's no use crying over spilled milk, but we can make things right by helping my people," Four said.

She sniffled. "...Okay, then I wanna help out too, sis!"

"That's a good place to start, so what do you have in mind Four?" Riku asked.

"I'm glad you asked! I was thinking I'd take a little more direct action since we have the demon slayer as an asset and go to the villages that are being terrorized by the heartless."

"Then let me come with! I promise I won't disappoint!" Five begged.

"...Oh alright, you'd probably go into my personal things while I'm gone so this is perhaps better."

Five's devious smirk returned. "Mmm, 'personal things' does that imply you're hiding a few pleasure toys after all? You do have awfully long nails so I'm sure that finger-"

"D-Don't say those things in front of Riku!" She shrieked in embarrassment.

"Aaand she's back," Dito groaned.

"In any case, that settles it. We'll set out to destroy the heartless terrorizing my people at once," Four said.

"About time I do something good with this keyblade," Riku said.

"Follow me, we'll take my personal airship, the hangar's just down this hall."

"Wait, I feel like we're forgetting something," Dito said.

"No, everyone is accounted for."

"—Lady Four! Hah-hah hah-" Decadus stopped in the middle of the hall to catch his breath, then finally made it over to them. "A thousand pardons for my late arrival Lady Four! Unfortunately, I broke a few bones in my rib cage, but I got here as soon as possible!"

"Enough with your silly excuses, Decadus. You've disappointed me enough today."

Decadus promptly got down on his hands and knees in apology. "Then I have failed you as a disciple and that is an inexcusable offense! Please, I insist, punish your Decadus, beat me...unghhh...step on me... oooohh...you can even bound me up and t- torture me. Oh, I can't take it~ yes, torture me ...slowly...and painfully!"

"Wh-oa, sick, nothing like an old guy getting off in public," Dito said.

Four sighed. "And it embarrasses me every time he does this. Decadus, get up on your feet this instant. I haven't the patience."

"You are such a prude sis, but I for one am absolutely getting turned on!" Five winked at him. "I'd torture you any day daddy~"

"Literally anything that has a pulse turns you on," Dito said.

"Right, and please don't call my disciple 'daddy' ever again."

Riku shook his head. "All of you guys have issues."

"Hey, don't group me in with those nutcases. I'm a pretty normal guy," Dito said.

 _'Yeah right, says the sadistic freak.'_ Four walked ahead of the group. "We must leave. We've wasted enough time as is."

Once they boarded Four's airship, Decadus made preparations for their flight, then they took off to the skies.

"Now this is traveling in style I - urp, nevermind I take that back!" Five scurried over to the side of the ship where she started throwing up from a sudden case of airsickness.

Dito let out a sinister laugh. "Man, wouldn't it be so nasty if her barf actually ended up landing on someone's head?"

Four frowned at his comment. "You're disgusting. I'll just go see if I have a bucket or something below deck. Don't touch anything while I'm gone."

"Huh, Four may not want to admit, but she does take good care of her sister," Riku said.

"Only out of obligation. I bet she wouldn't give a good goddamn if Five kicked the bucket, I know I wouldn't."

"Four's really like that?"

"Yep, Four acts like she's some kind of a saint, but she's just as shitty as the rest of her sisters." He put his hands behind his head. "Eh, maybe I'm not cutting them enough slack, that Zero chick I keep hearing about is killing all her sisters, right? She's got the right idea if you ask me."

"It's not like she's any better." Riku left Dito, deciding to rest his arms against the guardrail and look out into the sea of clouds beneath him. _'I'm not really sure who to trust anymore, but my heart's telling me something's not right with these Intoners, so I can at least stick around and figure out what they're up to. I guess that means eventually I'll run into Zero again and she's the last person I wanna see. I just don't understand her. Right when I think she's a decent person she proves me wrong. It's like she does this on purpose or-'_

"It's a beautiful sight, isn't it?" Four popped up beside him. "It's always prettier when you can look at it from a distance."

"Uh...I guess? So where is this village we're going to anyways?"

"Lindblum, it's the largest village of this land and it's located at the base of Mt. Bernstein of the Vice Norden. It's become severely overrun with those heartless creatures and with so many people there, you can see how much of a danger it poses."

"I see...that is a problem. Good thing we can help them out."

She smiled. "You're quite the heroic one, aren't you? I imagine you injured your arm for something of that nature?"

"It doesn't matter."

"O-Oh okay... I won't pry into personal matters, but I am curious about that sword of yours. I don't believe I've seen anything like it before, is it specially designed to kill the heartless?"

"That doesn't matter either." He walked away from her and sat down on the steps leading to the helm.

"Hey, you don't have to act so guarded around me you know," Four said, following him.

"I'm not here to make friends, just to get a job done. That was our deal."

' _I wish he didn't act like a complete jerk! Well, maybe it's like in one of those romance novels where you have to break their walls down first before they open up to you. I suppose that's silly of me to think of, but Riku's so unlike any other guy I've met before, not that I've met other guys because I'm no harlot, but generally speaking I mean._ _If I can get close to him then perhaps he'll tell me more about himself, and that power of his of course...'_

The second they landed down on Lindblum, Five was the first to rush off the airship. "Ughhh. I'm never going back on that death trap ever again!"

"Will you get up off the ground, Five? I swear that whole trip was the quietest you've ever been," Four said, she then waved to the two soldiers stationed at the entrance to Lindblum. "What's the state of affairs? Hopefully, there weren't any more casualties."

"There was a recent demon attack and the unit that was sent out has yet to return to their post, Lady Four," One of them reported.

"Then we must hurry before it's too late!"

When they first stepped past the entrance into the snow-capped village, nothing appeared to be amiss at first glance. Although the streets were devoid of people, largely replaced by the presence of soldiers, that was to be expected when heartless were prowling around.

Four walked over to Riku who appeared to be lost in thought. "So where do you think the heartless are?"

"I can feel their presence, but I can't pinpoint an exact location. We'll have to go further inside."

"Then it might be best to split up, conquer and divide as they say."

"No, that's not necessary. The heartless will find their way to me."

"Of course, you are the expert here after all, no reason to doubt you!"

"You don't sound convinced."

"I-It's not that, I just think the others will get in the way if we travel in a large group."

"Hmm, it sounds like you're trying to have Riku all to yourself," Five said.

"And leave me out of your affairs once again, unghhh," Decadus groaned.

"Th-That wasn't my intention at all! Let's just go already!"

"Sooo...where did the 'heartless' come from anyway? They just kinda appeared out of nowhere," Dito said.

"Don't know, but I'm sure they were attracted by the darkness of this world," Riku said.

"Oh man, 'darkness', you sound like such a friggin' nerd!"

"Quiet Dito," Four said. "If you don't mind, I'd like to hear what the darkness you're referring to is, Riku. I mean, since my heart is apparently 'full of it' I'm guessing it isn't the most pleasant thing in the world."

Dito chuckled. "He's already got you pegged, huh?"

"Heh heh, actually I think Four would be the one doing the pegging to Riku," Five said.

"What does that mean?" Riku asked.

"Just ignore them Riku."

"You don't have to tell me twice. Anyways, darkness is in everyone's hearts, for the most part. It's like a force of nature if I had to describe it. It'll give you power, but if you can't control it then it feeds off your negative emotions until it consumes you whole."

Four placed her hands over her chest. "That's...horrible."

"Hey I wouldn't sweat it, the whole darkness thing sounds like a pretty sweet deal if you ask me," Dito said.

"What part of 'it consumes you whole' did you not hear?"

"That would only suck if you had something to lose."

Five squeezed him from behind. "Of course you do Dito! You'll lose me!"

"Oh, yeah, right..." He mumbled.

"Ugh, imagine all the dreadful pain one would feel from slowly being destroyed. It-It's almost...ughhh...too much."

Riku rolled his eyes. "Please tell me that guy has an off button."

They reached further inside the village and the once pure white snow that blanketed the shops and streets were now stained with dark red blood. As gruesome as it was, the worst had far yet to come.

"They're here!"

Several neoshadow heartless lunged out from the snow as Riku's keyblade came to hand. He was quick to react to their presence, but as his blade tore through the manifestations of darkness, he had a sudden realization. _'Wait, these heartless are mutated just like the ones from the shrine! Does Five have something to do with this?'_

However, Five seemed to be equally as surprised to encounter the mutated heartless once again. "Ugh, please not these terrible eyesores again! Haven't you little demons had enough of me already?" Taking extra precaution to guard herself this time, she let Dito do most of the dirty work then swooped in to skewer the rest with her spear.

Meanwhile, Four and Decadus were handling the mutated heartless threat quite well, with Four being exceptionally ruthless. When the mutations were on the verge of defeat, rather than accept their fate, they fused together, turning into a disturbing amalgamation of darkness. Then they disappeared into the shadows, enticing them to follow.

"Let's go! We can't lose track of them!"

"-Ah, goddamnit!" It was Dito, he tripped over something and fallen on the snow. "Huh, hold on, I think I found something!"

"Forget it, we don't have time for it!"

"No way, you're gonna wanna see this." He shoveled a heap of snow out of the way, slowly revealing the corpse of a soldier. "Holy shit, it's frozen solid!"

"Watch your language Dito," Five said sharply.

"He's probably one of the soldiers that went missing so we might find a few more bodies here if we look around," He said with an uncomfortable amount of enthusiasm.

"P-Perhaps he's the only one," Four said.

"I hope not- er uh, we should double-check just to make sure."

"If those are the missing soldiers then...we're already too late," Riku said in a low voice.

"There's only one way to find out."

Five crossed her arms. "Well you can leave me out of this, there's no way I'm digging up dead bodies."

"We're not digging up dead bodies!" Four insisted. "It was just that one- in fact, he likely collapsed from hypothermia or something!"

But as they began sifting through the snow, it was clear they were standing on a giant graveyard of dead soldiers and villagers. It wasn't enough for them to just be dead either, their bodies were thoroughly mangled and fed upon like animals by the mutated heartless that killed them.

_There's an old saying that goes…_

" _The road to hell is paved with good intentions."_

_We act in ways for our own selfish reasons._

_We abandon a friend because we don't want to feel guilty._

_We help others because it makes us look good._

_We protect our friends because we made a promise to._

**Flowers for the Dead**

* * *

The forbidden Drakengard 3 if Zero was guy AU, more Intoners to come next, maybe...

Plus more memes


	7. "All Paths Lead Nowhere"

_Dear Lady Four,_

_As your faithful and loyal messenger, I'm writing to you in the case that I do not make the journey to Mt. Bernstein of the Vice Norden where you currently reside. Why do I have such foreboding thoughts you may be wondering? The reason any man might, I fear a premature death at the hands of whom you call a sister._

_I've seen and heard of all the horrifying things that Intoner has done to your people, but the infiltration of your castle might've been the worst of them all. Through the accounts of the few survivors that remain and of my own first-hand experience, I will detail the fall of your once great army from one Intoner and her dragon..._

***

Defending Four's castle was a challenging feat for the soldiers with the demons and occasional bandit prowling around and threatening their survival on a moment to moment basis. However, despite the hardships they faced, the soldiers bravely fended off against all threats that came their way. Due in no small part to the courageous General Steiner, whose stalwart leadership led them to victory time and time again.

That was until one fateful evening when Four's army received a grim reminder that day. A giant white dragon flew over the courtyards of the castle, casting a looming shadow over them, then he breathed out an enormous fire than burned the soldiers to a crisp. While such gruesome acts of carnage were being committed, all the damned Intoner herself had to say were petty insults that spit in the face of human decency.

"Four! Get your ass out here now!" She demanded.

A platoon of soldiers who managed to escape the hellfire rallied against her. "We won't let you go anywhere near her you wench!"

"Death to the demon and her dragon! Victory to lady Four, hurrah!"

"I'll shove that victory up my ass. Hit 'em with all you got, dummy!"

"You got it! One double awesome fire blast coming right up!" After the dragon's fire laid waste to the soldiers, he landed on the ground and stomped on the stragglers that were left.

Zero seemed to be entertained by the dying screams of men because she casually remarked, "How come you can't be useful all the time."

"What're you talking about?! I'm always helping you out Zero!"

"More like helping me get a headache." She looked around the courtyard. "Huh, with all this shit we're causing, I was half-expecting Four to show herself at some point."

"About that...I'm not sensing her presence anywhere. Are you sure she's even here?"

Before she could respond, the soldiers in the watchtowers brought out what they hoped would be game-changing hyper cannons to deal with their formidable foes.

"Kill it! Kill the dragon!"

"Death to the traitorous Intoner!

"Uh oh, I don't like the looks of those cannons."

"Neither do I! Fly away you dummy!"

As they fired the cannonballs at the fiends, Zero was scheming a way to figure out Lady Four's location. "Hey, you-" She crudely pointed her sword at a soldier who was manning one of the hyper cannons. "You look like you know your shit. Is that little virgin here or not?"

"Why would I ever sell out Lady Four to the likes of you?"

"So she's not here. Great, it's just like her to create some elaborate diversion like this because she's too pussy to face me head on!"

"Don't you dare call her a pussy! Take this!"

Although his innocent nature may suggest otherwise, Zero's dragon was just as savage as his partner. He wasted no time in shooting a fireball at the soldier right as he was about to light the fuse, destroying both him and the cannon in one explosive attack.

"That's one down, now take out the rest of the cannons while you're at it," She said.

"Aw, but Zero that was a lot of work. Think you can use some of your song powers on me to make me super-charged? I'd burn these baddies in no time!"

"Like I'd waste that on you. I died last time because I couldn't use it, remember that?"

"Oh yeah!" He laughed. "That was so gross when your flower turned really big and all that blood squirted out! I just thought you had that flower in your eye because you thought it looked pretty."

"God, how'd you become such a fucking moron?"

Just when all hope seemed lost for the soldiers, General Steiner, a true knight in shining armor, arrived in the courtyard. He was the answer to their prayers and with the strength he bolstered, the last pillar of Four's army.

Steiner unsheathed his mighty broadsword from its scabbard. "So these are the miscreants that threaten Lady Four and have slaughtered my army but fear for naught. I shall put a stop to this foolishness."

"And there's the final boss. He should know where Four's hiding," Zero said.

"Want me to soften him up for ya?"

"You'd only get in the way. I got it." Jumping off her dragon's back, she confronted Steiner.

"My men tell me that you brutally slaughtered General Beatrix. Her death will not go in vain, I will present your head to Lady Four," He said.

"Yeah, whatever. I just hope you're not as talkative as she was."

Squeezing the handle of his sword, he charged at that demon of a woman, his steps drumming on the ground like clasps of thunder. "You will meet your end to my blade wretched Intoner and curse the day you ever stepped foot in the Land of Mountains!"

**Verse 5**

_I dance in a nightmare_

_Caged by my frozen heart_

_With each death, I emerge from a crimson forest_

_And still, I dance in darkness._

The moment that song of death escaped from her lips, she performed such black magic, it could hardly be described in the pages that I write. But I, the messenger, will try my best to transcribe the events that followed.

Her body glowed a sickening pink color and the fast way she moved had to have been some sort of witchery on her behalf. Try as he might, Steiner was too slow to keep up with her lightning-fast speeds and she cut him down effortlessly. I wish the encounter would've ended right then and there, but she kept him alive for her nefarious plans to find Lady Four once and for all.

"Now, before I kill you, you're going to tell me where Four is," She said, digging her heel on the back of his head.

"I-I refuse! Even as I draw my last breaths, I will never tell you where Lady Four is! And even if you do end up finding her through your Intoner magic, the demon slayer will keep her far away from the likes of you!"

"The...demon slayer?"

"Wait- they called Riku that before, right?" Her dragon asked.

"...So, he's with Four now?!" She was obviously enraged by this, although the reasonings behind such strong feelings remain unclear, she adopted a far nastier, violent attitude towards Steiner. "Then I'll kill both of them! Tell me where he is. Now!"

"I will tell you nothing!"

Zero snatched his right arm, then twisted it into an uncomfortable position—By God, she was trying to torture the poor man. "I said, tell me where the fuck Riku is or I'll make sure your death will be slow and painful."

"I...will tell you...nothing..."

"Z-Zero, what're you doing? You're scaring me," Her dragon whimpered out.

Ignoring his pleas, she continued to torment him. "Still not talking huh? How about when I do this-" A terrible cracking noise sounded when Zero broke Steiner's arm, but he made not one sound of discomfort which only proved to anger her further. "Aren't you a glutton for punishment, then I'll go for something that cuts deeper."

Lowering her head, she then asked him in a very low voice, "Do you have a family?"

That's all it took, according to the accounts of the soldier that was pretending to be dead nearby, to break him. After that, she killed him, then was off on her way.

"Um...Zero?"

"What?"

"You didn't really mean it when you said you'd kill his family right?"

"Lucky for him, I'm past my family killing days."

 _That's as much information I was able to get out of the survivors before they fell unconscious, but their stories are not unique. The Intoner Zero is a blight on humanity who must be executed at once or I fear that wi_ —

***

The messenger collapsed on the crimson snow after Zero pulled her blade out of his chest. "And that takes care of the trash." She picked up his letter, then skimmed through it. "So he was heading to Mt. Whatever too, huh? At least I'm going in the right direction, guess that soldier guy wasn't lying to me."

Throwing it back on the ground, Zero kept trudging through the snow, trying her best to keep warm. In retrospect, she didn't wear the warmest outfit for the weather, so for now, complaining was her only source of heat. "...I'm freezing my ass off and my stupid dragon's nowhere to be found. He ALREADY got lost in the last chapter, he can't keep doing this shit to me! I'm gonna kill that dummy!"

She kicked a heap of snow out of the way. "Speaking of dummies I wanna kill- Riku's dead whenever I find him! Can't believe he's been fucking Four the whole time right behind my back! That asshat!" But in the middle of her complaining, she was surrounded by a swarm of Frost Serpent heartless.

"Icing on the shit cake."

—

After the discovery of dead bodies beneath their feet, Dito was absolutely ecstatic by the mass graveyard while everyone else was deeply unsettled by it. Especially Four, who took it the hardest, she was down on her knees and shaking her head. ' _How can One trust me to be a ruler if I fail to protect my people? No- no stop it Four, it's not like this is your fault! You did everything you could to help them, besides most of them were soldiers anyways so they were already prepared to die.'_

Another voice filled her thoughts and it was loudest of them all. ' _Dear little sister, YOU'RE the reason why they're dead so the only one to blame is you. Well, I shouldn't expect much from a sister as worthless as you. Why don't you make yourself useful and bury yourself in the ground alongside them.'_

"None of that's true, it's not my fault! Stop saying those awful things!" Four cried out.

"What's her problem?" Dito asked.

Despite his masochistic tendencies, Decadus knew when his Intoner needed him, so he bent down to her side and tried his best to console her. "Lady Four, please tell me what troubles you and allow me to shoulder the burden of your pain...nngh, pain- er, uh, ignore that last remark. Just a slip of the tongue."

"Of course you're no help as always."

Meanwhile, Riku decided to confront Five and figure out what was going on. "Five, I saw those same mutated heartless in your shrine. If you're the reason why all of these innocent people are dead, then I won't let you off easy this time."

"Mmm, I love it when you act so big and tough~"

He summoned his keyblade. "I'm serious."

She held her hands up in defense. "Oh I was only teasing, I promise this isn't my doing! The heartless started getting all gross looking _after_ I used my Intoner song on them so there's no way I could've done it."

"If an Intoner's song is what causes them to mutate then that means..."

Four's face tensed up. "Just say it already! You think it's my fault, don't you?!"

"How absurd, no one's blaming you sis," Five said.

"Nah, it's pretty obvious Four mutated them," Dito said.

"Dito!"

"What? I'm just saying what we're all thinking."

"I would never have such ill-thoughts for Lady Four," Decadus insisted.

"Well, all of you are wrong! I'll kill the heartless myself and prove that I'm not the bad guy here!"

When Four tried to run away, Five grabbed her arm. "Where do you think you're running off to?"

"Leave me alone!" She wrestled herself free, then ran away while Five followed behind.

Before Riku and the others could chase after them, they were attacked by more mutated heartless, leaving Five to bring Four back.

"Why are you following me Five?! Didn't I tell you to leave me alone!" Four said, kicking a giant crate back at her.

Five quickly cut down the crate with her spear. "Aw, but what good of a little sister would be if I left my big sis all alone~"

"Like you were a good little sister to begin with!"

"You don't really mean that dear, that's just your obsessive jealousy speaking."

"Hmph! How could I be jealous of someone as vulgar and indecent as you!"

"How couldn't you be!"

Four slowed down at a cluster of small village houses where the mutated heartless were in the process of dragging its victims out of their homes and devouring them.

"Umm, hold on a sec, are you sure it's the best idea to fight them all on our own? We should go get Riku at least," Five said.

"No." Four stepped forward, tightening her claw-like combat bracers. "A ruler protects their people no matter what!" A sharp departure from her usual level-headed demeanor, she recklessly threw herself at the enemy, tearing their flesh and bones apart. Despite putting everything on the line in one final stand against the mutated heartless, they were impervious to her attacks, quickly merging their bodies back together within seconds.

Just as the mutated heartless were getting ready to bite off their body part of choice from Four, Five pulled her away. "Oh my god, what's gotten into you Four? You were never this reckless before!"

"Let me go, I- I have to kill them!" She screamed.

"Did you forget already? Only Riku can-"

"I KNOW! This is all I have left, okay?!" She snapped. "I'm not some ditzy whore like you who gets a pass because men only think with their dicks! You can get away with having your whole land destroyed and not have everyone hate your guts, but if I let that happen, then I might as well be trash to everyone. If I can kill the heartless, then maybe...maybe I can do something better than you! Maybe people will see me instead of you for once!"

"Four...I had no idea."

"Shut up! The last thing I want is your sympathy!" Elbowing Five in the stomach, she wrangled free, then ran right back to the heartless with her arms stretched out. At the same time, the mutated heartless barred their rows of razor-sharp teeth at her.

' _Even though she's being difficult, I have to save her. She's my sister.'_ In an act of selflessness, Five jumped in front of her sister so she could protect her, but the mutated heartless merely tore her heart out from her own body and she was enveloped with darkness.

"No...I...don't...want...to...die." Five collapsed on the ground, as the mutated heartless clustered around her, she began transforming into a monster herself. A heartless grew massively from her with multiple tentacles sprouting from the body. The final form resembled a giant octopus monster, complete with glowing yellow eyes and pitch-black flesh swathed by darkness.

 **FIVE'S HEARTLESS:** **𝓞𝓬𝓽𝓪𝓿𝓲𝓪**

"No...Five...even though this is the best you've ever looked before...y-you're not...you're not..." Four buried her head in her palms. "No...th-this isn't my fault...this isn't my fault." One of the tentacles snaked around her spine, sinking into the crevices of her body. Four sunk somewhere in between light and dark, day and night. Just when she thought she lost all sense of herself, she found her way back to dawn when Riku's hand wrapped around hers, pulling her free.

"You okay?" He asked in a voice that sent chills down her spine

Four nodded. As guilty as it made her feel, it felt nice for _her_ to be prioritized, for _her_ to be worried about. "...Thank you." She mumbled.

Flipping his keyblade handle around in his hands, Riku directed his full attention to Octavia. "I'll end this."

In that moment, Four felt so sure of Riku, almost making her forget about her sister's untimely demise as he fought against Octavia. He was stacking a fair amount of damage, hitting the weak spot on its head and dodging its sluggish attacks, but that all changed when the disciples finally arrived.

"—Lady Four!" Decadus rushed over to her side, then promptly got down on his knees. "Lady Four, I deeply apologize for my absence! I hope that you are not-"

"Not now! Can't you see we're under attack?!"

Dito was also about to walk up to her and ask where 'ol' blubberbags' was, but his attention was drawn to the terrifying octopus heartless that Riku was dealing with. "Oh man, that thing looks so nasty! Hey Riku, try not to rough it up too much, alright? I wanna cut it wide open and see its slimy brain!"

"God you're such a freak Dito," Four said.

Maybe because a piece of Five was still etched within Octavia, but it started screeching a cacophony of noise.

 **ގ** **-⇂ ǝsɹǝΛ**

 _**P̵̭͋u̴̪̎̆r̸̤͎̿̂̑̆ȇ̶̹̪͔̱̒** _ _̵̘͔́̈́a̴̬͓̅n̴̳̜̋̏̏̕d̸̖̗̙̀͝_ _**̶̝̘̄͆̕͘ś̷͙t̶̛̥̜̹̫̊ŕ̷̘͇̊̽͝o̵̡̪̜̐̀̈n̷̖̻̉͆́g̶̦̜̓̾̋̂ͅ** _ _̵̳̙͈̚a̵̤͆͜r̴̥̺͊̌ͅḙ̸͆ ̷̢̳̥̲͒ţ̸͐͛̚h̶̭̞͋̇̓̀e̴̟̣̬͆̾̀͊s̴̬͕̆̒e̷̙̺̙̎͜ ̵͎͖͊ͅẇ̶̧̜̗h̵̢̖̹̄ȉ̵̳t̵̻̣͐ͅë̸͈̮́͐͌́_ _**̴̯̺̬̈͌͛c̴̭͕̮̖̃̈́l̸̛͓͒̿̏ä̸͚͈͖́̕w̶̡̦͊͆͘š̷͔͓̃͠** _

̷̙͎̙̠̔a̸͓͊̒͐n̷̗̈́̋̈́̽d̵̞̒̎ ̴͍̬̼̣̔̇͑͠ą̵̩̰͌͝r̸͈̹̻̬͆́̅̔e̶̗͊ ̸̧̧͍͌͝͝t̴͎̒ͅh̷̭̗͙͎̄̈́̇e̶̠̰̤͒̈̿̽͜s̷̛͚e̶̹͒̆ ̵̂͒̽̓͜t̸̟͈͇́̈́̿̕e̵̥̓́ĕ̴̳̲̈́͆̒ť̷̹h̸͖͓̙̀̚

_̴̧̛̼̖̥͘"̶̨̛̮̤͙́͝S̸̨̤͘̕o̸̼̻̊̒̒̇m̸̆̒ͅe̶̮̺̥̿͐̈́́d̴̦̗̃͋a̸̜͌͂y̵̎̀ͅ ̶̹̄͜t̵͓͍̹͆̌͝ḩ̶̻̜̉̂ͅḙ̸͓̾̉̈͜ **̶͚̘̹̅̆̐f̶̫̮̙̗̃̾̕l̶̢̘͉̋̄̽̌͜ó̷͚̺͔̗̈́̚w̵̞̾̄̓̚e̴̮͍̊̔r̷̯̠͐͠** ̵̨̫̺̖̍͝ṡ̷̯̰̥̻̂̓h̴̠̿̃̓ạ̷͆̈́̃͗ͅl̷̛̮͑͛͝ḽ̵̭͕̳̋͝ ̸̜̃͜b̴͇̎͛̕͝l̶̛̬͒͂̈o̷͇͊̽o̶̗̣̽̕m̸̢̻͔̯̈̀̽ **̵̙͐ė̵͍̦̫͈̅̋̓t̵̨̙̲̏̿̓ě̴̞̗̰̫̐͌̒ṙ̸͕͓̍ǹ̶͙a̷̮̣̙̤̓l̵̜̈́"** ̴̻͍̋͋ ̴͙̔́͗̅T̸͍͚̒͑̀̇h̴̦̹͍͒̄ḙ̵͓̞̇́͝͠y̵͔̗̆ ̶͈̉͝s̸̡̘̪̿̿́͝a̴̰̽̈́y̵͉̳̰̓_

_̴̭̬̻͒"̷͚͎̽̔S̸̪̯̑̑̚o̵̼̟͑͗̍͂m̶̯̓̆ẽ̴͕̝͇͓͒͝d̷̝̼̘̎̈́̇ä̶͖̙͘y̷̗͕̓ͅ ̶̢̘̫̜̒͂͐t̸̟̣͔̊ḩ̷̬̺̼̐e̵̛̮̝ **̶̬͖̉͜f̷̜̍͑͆ͅl̶̨͓̪͐̎̑͝ȍ̶͔̺̮w̶̢̢̐e̶͔̠̪͉͋̈́̓r̶̦͍̉̔̂͘ ̶̻̱͓̿̽̈́͠d̵̺̩̂̽̍͋e̸͈̱̅͜͝s̶̰̒t̸̹̱̪̜͝r̵͎͎̿̉̈̿͜o̷̗͓̘͗̉̊y̴̯̣͖̾̂͛̌ͅe̵̤̓̆d̵̻͍̪̙̏͘͝** "̷̧͓̕͜ ̵̮͌͌Ť̸͔̳̲̈̀h̵͙̻̜͐̿̓ȩ̵̺̺̑͋̄y̶̹̲̅̀ ̷̭͂̽̔͠s̵̘̞̾̓̓͝ͅa̶̠̓̅ÿ̴̤͇͉̗́_

_**̵̧̘̈́͌̃̇A̶͍̰̹̕ņ̶͕̭͋̔̑d̵̺̳̫͋̈́̂ ̴̙̟̑̎̊̀t̸̮̖̲̂͘h̴͈̱̊͝a̴͓̦̯̱̅̃ţ̵̯̆͒̊ ̶͚̫̤̩̉d̶̰͎͚͍̕͝ā̵͇̂̀y̷̜̰̿͜ ̶̦̓͂̈́̌ẅ̴̥͗͠i̴̩̒͊̽͘l̵͈͔̮͌̔l̶̡̻̗̆̕ ̷̳͕͍͙̍͆̎̕b̵͈͛ḛ̵͛̍͗̋ ̸̙̽̅͝ṇ̴̣̠̳̈́̑̕o̴̹͌̏w̵̥̩͍̔ ̵̲͇͕̌̍͐** _

A black flower sprouted from Octavia's eye and its attacks became substantially more aggressive. It flung its tentacles around like whips, snatching up Dito, Riku and it almost got Four too, but Decadus naturally let himself get captured for her.

"Oh my goodness, Riku!" Four said.

"Damn it! This is not how I wanted to go out!" Dito yelled.

"Ah I disagree, there's nothing more...unngh... _pleasurable_... than a slow, painful death as our bodies get crushed to death. This is pure e-ecstasy OOOooh!"

 _"_ Aw, gross man! I don't wanna have to die while listening to you get off!"

"No one's dying! I'm destroying this heartless!" Riku was able to break free from its hold, but before he could hit the ground, the tentacles shot right back at him and grabbed him by his debilitated arm.

For all the strength Riku lost, he thought he was at least strong enough to move past his trauma, but his old wounds reopened so easily and he just froze up. His mind became a broken record as the memories of all the blood and screams came back to him.

Seeing that Riku was in trouble, Four ran over and clawed through the tentacles, freeing him. "Riku! You're not hurt are you?!"

"No... I'm fine." He said absentmindedly. "I'm sorry about that, I won't let it happen again."

"Um, okay, but let me help you out as well, you and I are a team!"

"If you can save your friends, then I'll finish the rest."

 _"_ I mean, I would never call those two my 'friends', especially not-"

 _"_ Four!"

 _"S_ orry. Consider those two cretins saved!"

While Four broke the disciples free, Riku bolted to Octavia with unwavering determination. As he drew closer to the cephalopod, it blasted a jet stream of water at him, he dodged the initial attack, then used his keyblade to deflect the round of water bullets it shot at him. Once he got within range, he threw his keyblade and it lodged inside Octavia's head. It tried to attack him with its tentacles again, but Four summoned a force field that protected Riku.

"Thanks!"

"Hee-hee, anything for you Riku~"

Riku finished Octavia off with a series of fast sword strikes and as the darkness returned back to the shadows, Five was left lying on the snow, her original body disintegrating.

He released his keyblade. "Wait- that was Five?!"

"Five!" Four went over to her side. I'm happy that you're still with us at least."

"Barely," Dito said, joining her.

Four held her sister's hand until she was gone from their world. All that remained from her departure was the little girl's doll she once held dear. Four picked it up. _'A doll? How childish.'_ It was supposed to be a quiet moment, but the second Five died, Dito started celebrating.

 _"_ Holy fucking shit! This day just keeps getting better! Ah ha ha! She's dead! She's dead! SHE'S DEAD! Can't work me to the bone anymore you- [redacted] [redacted] [that's definitely gotta be redacted]!"

"Stop it Dito!" Four cried. "How dare you disrespect my late little sister like that! She gave you the world and this is how you treat her? You ingrate!"

 _"_ Please, all that bitch ever gave me was a rash. Now if you excuse me, I still have a eulogy to give her!"

"No, that's enough," Riku said.

"What, don't tell me you actually feel bad for her. She was the fucking worst."

"But she could've been a better person. Her heart had the capacity to grow, unlike you."

He rolled his eyes. _'Does this guy always have to talk like a moron?'_

"Riku's right. And now that she's gone... I feel immense pain in my own heart," Four said.

"Oh then allow me to share that pain as-"

"Ugh, no, Decadus. Great, you just ruined my moment."

"Apologies."

"No, i-it's fine. I think it's time we all retire for the night anyway, it's getting late."

"It's a little cold to be camping out here," Riku said.

"No worries, there's an Inn nearby so that won't be an issue."

"Sounds good then."

"Perfect! Decadus, why don't you get rid of the rest of these bodies in the meantime."

 _"_ It would be my pleasure Lady Four."

Four took Riku and Dito to the town's Inn. "Hello, we'd like to check in for the night," She said.

"Oh, L-Lady Four, I'm humbled by your presence. We have two rooms available for you and your guests, f-free of charge of course," The Innkeeper said.

"Thank you, you're very kind." She grabbed the keys then turned to the boys. "Um...there's three of us and only two rooms so..."

Dito snatched one of the room keys. _"_ So I'm getting a whole room to myself, sweet!"

"We haven't discussed that yet!"

"Hey, don't give me that look. I'm giving you an opportunity to get laid tonight."

 _"_ Dito! My sister _just_ died!"

"All the more reason to celebrate right?"

"You have no respect for my mourning!"

He let out a chuckle. "HA! Like anyone's buying that crap.

Four turned to Riku. "Pay him no mind, let's just go to our room."

The two of them walked inside their inn room. "Wow, only one bed? I guess that means we have to-"

 _"_ I'm fine on the floor."

She rubbed her arm. "R-Right of course, I'll just get the... fireplace ...going." As she was piling up the wood, she snuck a glance over to Riku who appeared to be in deep thought. "Um...so plans for tomorrow! We can double-check to make sure Linblum is secure then we'll move onto the next village!"

"Sure."

"I'm glad you're still on board after, well... everything that happened." With the fire lit and well-fed on a supply of wood, Four decided to hop up the bed and stare at Riku again until she worked up the nerve to continue their one-sided conversation. _'Why does he seem so disinterested? Is it because he's thinking about Five? Great, she's STILL ruining my life even when she's dead. Well, Five always got men's attention by being indecent so maybe I should try a similar approach!'_

"Uh, you know, if my little sister were still with us she'd probably be making a lot of vulgar noises right about now. Which I can't really relate to since I'm still a v-virgin and everything..." Her face was getting so hot she felt like she was going to melt, but she pushed on regardless of how mortified she felt. "So...hopefully I'm not the only one in that regard. Being a virgin I mean."

"Nah, same here."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Then that's one thing we have in common! I'd always used to get teased by my sisters for being a virgin, but don't get me wrong... it's not like I'm against it. In fact, I believe your virginity is a precious and beautiful thing that should be saved for a time when true love blossoms, not whoring it around to every guy that looks your way!"

"You hold your sisters in such high regard," He said sarcastically.

 _"_ Really? I'm glad you noticed!"

 _"_ Listen, Four, I've been thinking a lot on what happened today and we need to talk about it."

 _"_ L- Look it's not my fault, okay? I tried my best to protect her but she was the one who jumped in front of me, so don't think I'm a bad sister or anything when I-"

 _"_ No, not that, before your sister passed she said something about the mutated heartless that I want to ask you about."

 _"_ Why... would you want to ask me about them?"

"They're the reason why your sister's dead so I figured you wanted to get to the bottom of it, unless you know something I don't."

Her eyebrows knitted together. "I don't understand what you're trying to get at, Riku."

 _"_ I think there's something you're not telling me."

"So...you do think this is all my fault?"

 _"_ I didn't say that."

 _"_ You're implying it!"

 _"_ Five told me the heartless only mutated for her after she sang the Intoner song and you're the only other Intoner here."

"No I'm not! Did you forget I'm being hunted down by my eldest sister? She could've very well been behind this!"

He shook his head. "I'd know if it was her and with the way you keep deflecting, I'm beginning to think this was all on you. I just don't understand why you would do any of this if you claim you're trying to save your people."

 _"_ I am! You don't understand!"

"Then make me understand!" He stood up from the floor. "Tell me what's going on with these heartless!"

Her voice lowered. "...You're...you're going to hate me if I tell you."

"I'll hate you a lot less if you tell me the truth! Whatever it is, I can figure something out to fix it!"

When Riku looked at her, she looked away from him, thumbing the folds of her skirt instead. "I should start from the beginning. It's a semi-long story..."

***

_It all began when the heartless first started to appear._

_No one could explain why they were here or where they came from but my sisters and I took an immediate interest in them._ _Or rather, they took an immediate interest in us._ _After their arrival, it didn't take long for my sister, One, to summon us all together at her Cathedral in order to address their presence._

Within the arched halls of the Cathedral, One stood before her sisters and their respective disciples. "Dear sisters, I've summoned you all here today to discuss the emergence of these demon-like creatures," She gestured to a cage teeming with heartless. "I've yet to discover their origins, but they've been terrorizing the lands of Midgard, undoing all the order we've worked so hard to maintain."

"...I like 'em," Three said.

"You...like them?"

"I for one have to agree. Some of them are pretty cute, and it's not like they've been bothering us so I don't see what the big deal is," Five said.

"The 'big deal' is they've been killing humans and turning them into demons."

Three broke out into a wide grin. "It's a fascinating process actually, they seem to devour the very life force of their host which in return creates another demon and the stronger their host is, the more formidable of a demon they create. Then they REALLY start acting strange when you use the In-"

 _"_ That's enough Three. All I ask is that you don't interact with these demons right now because they have powers we have yet to comprehend."

"I agree wholeheartedly One! I'll take it upon myself to see to it that those demons are no longer a threat to the humans!" Four boasted.

"I appreciate your enthusiasm, but that's not necessary either. As far as I know, the actual amount of those demons are fairly low and I'd like to keep it that way. Actively trying to kill them might make them reproduce faster so please, all of you, prioritize protecting your people above all else until I can figure them out."

Five stuck her tongue out at Four. "See? No one likes a suck-up, flatty!"

 _Because One didn't fully understand them yet, she_ _warned us all to stay away from the heartless._ _In hindsight, I really should've listened to her, but at the time, all I ever wanted to do was impress her so she could see the value in me over my other sisters._

Four and Decadus were on their way back to the castle when they came across a few shadow heartless. However, rather than attack the Intoner, they were submissive to her, waiting on her for a command.

_It didn't take long for me to realize that I exerted control over the heartless...and once I found that out, I hatched up a plan that would get me the recognition I deserved._

"This is my chance Decadus! One doesn't know what she's talking about. She'll see, I'll have these demons wrapped around my finger, then she'll have to acknowledge how much better I am than my stupid sisters!"

 _I would intentionally summon heartless in the villages, then swoop in and save the day. I couldn't kill them but I could control them and it worked. I was propped up as a hero, even One finally acknowledged me, but I guess I just let it all go to my head._ _I started summoning more and more heartless until eventually the destruction they caused was so overwhelming that I couldn't keep up._

_That's when I decided to use my power of song on them because I thought it would make them obedient again and...they started transforming into those terrible creatures you saw earlier today._

***

When Four looked at Riku, he looked away from her. "But...I promise, after that, I devoted myself to destroying the heartless! I did everything I could, that's why I was so happy when I found out about your existence because I'd begun to lose all hope. Now I can make things right again."

Without saying as much as a word, Riku went to the door, his hand resting on the doorknob. "...I need time to sort things out."

 _"_ Uh...okay. I'll be here then, waiting."

Closing the door behind him, he left the Inn and walked outside. His cool exterior began to break down by the seams while he grappled with everything that Four told him. ' _What did I get myself into? I've been helping out some psycho who let people die just to boost her own ego?'_

Riku brushed his hand through his hair, wondering how he could 'fix' any of this. _'This is why I don't want anything to do with these Intoners, how can I get rid of the darkness in this world when they're the ones who keep on creating it.'_ Sighing, he slipped his clammy hand back inside his pocket. "...I'm just not thinking clearly, maybe it'll help if I go on a walk."

He walked out of Lindblum, making his way down the winding, mountain path. _'All Sora had to do was follow his heart and things always ended up working out for him- for the most part. I feel like I'm failing this world, failing the light. Nothing I do saves anyone, it just brings them closer to the darkness.'_ Riku was so preoccupied with navigating his own thoughts, he didn't even realize at first that he walked a good distance away from the village and now found himself stuck in an intense blizzard

"What the- where'd this blizzard come from? It was calm just a few seconds ago." He pushed through the whipping winds, eventually finding the source of the winter storm to be from Frost Serpent heartless circling the skies.

"And here's where magic would've been useful. No problem, I can beat them easily without it." Airstepping to one of the Frost Serpents, he slashed his keyblade through its head. It retaliated by shooting an icy blast at him which he immediately countered, then dished out his shotlock against both heartless.

Once Riku landed on the ground, the Frost Serpents teamed up to create a giant blizzard tornado, but he used their attack to his advantage. Throwing himself right into the eye of the storm, he was rapidly lifted up into the air where he flung his keyblade like a windmill at the Frost Serpents, the fast spinning blade slicing them both in half.

With two hearts freed, he was ready to return back to Lindblum when he stumbled across something that made him freeze up again. "No way..." Right at his feet was Zero, who was lying unconscious in the snow, covered in blood.

_Encountering the very Intoner he swore off_

_The keyblade wielder was left with a decision;_

_Abandon the person who abandoned him_

_Or foolishly save someone who wouldn't even do the same for him_

**Flowers for the Dead**

* * *

Post chapter memes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since it's CH7 for 7 lights, just wanted to thank you guys for reading my story and sticking with me for so long. I appreciate everyone for taking the time to review, it always makes my day:) Also sorry this took so long to get out, back at school for a few months so expect erratic updates:/


	8. "I Want You For A Lifetime"

It was daybreak in the Land of Mountains and two soldiers were patrolling around the perimeter of Mt. Bernstein of the Vice Norden. They soon came across the frozen corpse of the messenger, his body preserved by the snow's frigid temperature.

"He's one of the messengers, isn't he?" One of the soldiers bent down and shifted his hands through the snow. He soon found a letter stained with blood, containing the messenger's dying words for Four. "I knew it. We need to deliver this message immediately, this could mean trouble for the Lady."

The soldiers returned to Lindblum in frantic search for Lady Four, but ended up running into Decadus instead who was visibly suffering from hypothermia.

"Hey, you're Lady Four's disciple, aren't you?" The soldier asked.

"Th-That I am. H-How may I be of s-service?" He said between chattering teeth.

"I need you to deliver this letter to Lady Four. It's very important that this gets to her!"

"I- I see. Fear not for L-Lady Four's wellbeing, I-I will make sure she receives this!" With the letter in his possession, Decadus made his way to the Inn. After talking to the Innkeeper, he found her room in no time, then knocked on the door. However, the only response he received from the other side were muffled panting noises and the sound of her bed creaking.

' _Lady Four must be up to her private affairs. I shouldn't disturb her, but I must deliver this paramount news and accept whatever cruel punishment she'll have in store for me.'_ Excited by the inevitable discipline he would receive from Four, he pushed the door wide open and caught Four in a compromising position.

Needless to say, she completely lost her shit. "DECADUS! YOU DISGUSTING PIG!" Four picked up the nearest items she could reach and practically threw the entire Inn room at him. "GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!"

"Y-Yes of course!" He quickly shut the door, then only opened it again when Four properly called for him. The moment he stood in her presence, he immediately groveled before her. "Deepest apologies my Lady, I am truly and utterly a failure of a disciple, and I ask, no I _insist_ that you give me your absolute worst- Oo-ooohhh! I'm ecstatic to endure whatever unbearable pain you have in store for me...uuuugh."

"Would it kill you to shut up for once." Four held her hand out, then impatiently tapped her foot. "Well? What was so important that you had to burst into my room?"

"This letter my Lady."

After she skimmed through the letter, she tore it up right in front of him. "Why are you wasting my time with this foolish nonsense? I know full well that Zero is hunting me and that most of my forces are dead, this isn't anything new. Don't you have any relevant news like- oh, I don't know, where the heck Riku went?!"

"Uh I- erm I did see Riku leave the village late at night and based on the information from the message, it's likely he ran into Zero. Hence his absence."

All the color drained out of her face and a sickening feeling came over her like a punch in the gut. "No no no no no! I _knew_ he hated me after I told him everything! I knew it! This is why I never tell the truth! Ugh - no no..."

As she tried to grapple with the reality that everything she worked so hard to build up was now falling apart in the span of a day, her mind served as a safety net to protect her from a full-on breakdown. "Th-This isn't really because of what _I_ did. This is just another case of men being unfaithful! He probably went crawling back to Zero because she's objectively prettier than me and his tiny dick couldn't see my brains over her beauty! That's all! Right, Decadus? Tell me I'm right! Please tell me I'm right!"

"Yes, of course. You're never wrong Lady Four."

"See?! I'm right! I'm right! He's just stupid! Everyone's just stupid!"

"Uh...Lady Four? Are you alright?"

"Ha ha, I'm better than alright! Why don't you prepare for flight?"

"If we're fleeing, then where would we set course to? It seems all of our military bases have been compromised."

"Oh no, I won't run with my tail in between my legs. Those two traitors will find me soon enough and when they do, I'll lure them into a trap! They won't even know what hit them!"

While Four raved on, at the end of the hallway, Dito listened in. "Huh, sounds like Four's completely lost her shit. Better stay away from her."

* * *

The next morning, Zero woke up in a dimly lit cave across from a campfire. "What? How the hell did I end up here?" She heard the echo of footsteps approaching and tried to look around the cave to see who it was, but the fire's light could only penetrate so much of the surrounding darkness. ' _I don't get it. There's no one who would ever want to save me.'_

When Riku was the one who emerged from the shadows, Zero swore she felt her heart skip a beat. He was the person she least expected would ever want anything to do with her and yet it still made perfect sense all at the same time.

"You okay?" He asked, lowering himself down on the cave floor.

She scoffed. "Why would you care?"

"Maybe because I'm not a jerk. As much as I don't like you, I wasn't going to leave you out to die."

"I'd rather be dead than look at your scummy ass anyways."

"Really? I'm the scummy one after you left me the way you did?!"

"At least I didn't go fuck your worst enemy."

"I would never do that stuff with her! You just made up a reason to be pissed off at me because you can't own up to your actions!"

"It's not like you're any better! I know you're just waiting to kill me at some point! There's _no_ other reason why you would save me, so come on! Stab me in the back already!"

"See this is your problem, Zero. You always think I have it out for you and that's why you don't ever want to accept my help!"

"God, this is why I fucking LEFT you! I never wanted your help! I know I deserve to die so why do you _always_ keep getting in my way?!"

"Because I don't want you to end up like I did! I've destroyed my world before! I've almost destroyed _myself_! Sorry for thinking no one should have to go through that path of darkness, but you know what? Forget it. I'm done trying to get through to you. I don't care anymore, just do what you want." He stood up to leave.

"Good! Fuck you for caring about me! I don't need you and I never fucking missed you every night you were gone!"

"Uh- what?"

"You heard me! I'm not sorry and I'm not the biggest asshole for leaving you either. And... I definitely don't want you to still travel with me despite everything I did to you."

He crossed his arms. "I'm getting mixed signals here. So you're sorry, but you're being obnoxious about it?"

"Yeah...I guess I am."

"Well it sucked. You need to work on your apologies."

"I tried, okay? I'm new at the whole 'feeling bad for stuff I did to people who are still alive' thing."

"Whatever. Look, this doesn't mean I forgive you, but I do need you to help me deal with Four."

"So you finally want to kill her, huh? Took you long enough."

"No, I want you to help me contain her since you're the expert on Intoner powers. I want to try to stop the darkness from taking over her heart. Otherwise, she's like this girl version of a psychopath."

She rolled her eyes. "And you're the guy version of a moron. The 'darkness' isn't what's making her do bad things, she's just fucked up in the head."

"That's not the problem here. It's the heartless she'll turn into if the darkness corrupts her heart. I already saw what happened to Five, I don't want it to happen again."

"Wait ...so Five's dead now?"

"Yeah, I had to uh... destroy her."

"Gotta admit, kind of ironic that you ended up killing her instead of me."

"Not the time Zero. So are you with me or not?"

She shook her head. "Oh, you're actually serious? Yeah, not gonna happen. Four _has_ to die, I'm not negotiating with you on that."

"No she doesn't, I just told you there's a way to save her."

"I don't care. You're not getting involved with any Intoner shit, okay? Just shut up and follow me around like what we used to do."

"No, I asked _you_ to help me deal with Four, not the other way around. If you're not on board then we're done here."

"Heh, you've definitely grown a pair since I last saw you, but you're not getting in the way of me killing Four. It's not like that virgin bitch doesn't deserve what's coming for her either so I don't get what your problem is."

"You don't get it Zero, I'm just...tired of failing everyone. So many people lost their lives because I wasn't there to save them from the darkness, but I won't lose another person. As horrible as she is, I'm saving Four, she at least deserves a shot at finding her light before it gets taken away from her."

"Look, you don't know what the hell you're dealing with when it comes to Intoners so stay out of it! They're my problem, not yours!"

"I already told you that if the heartless are involved, then it's my problem too. As long as I wield this keyblade, then I'll protect the light."

Rather than keep arguing with him, Zero let out a disgruntled sigh in defeat because Riku had that stupid look on his face and she knew no matter what she'd say to him, he wasn't going to listen to reason. "God fucking damnit...FINE!"

"So you'll help me with Four?"

"Sure whatever. Knock yourself out and when you're ready for an adult to step in, I'll kill her." She got up from the ground, then balled up Riku's jacket and threw it at him. "And don't get any ideas either. I'm only going along with this because you saved my life already."

"Great to hear you're still the same. What about Mikhail? Haven't seen him around."

"I was looking for that idiot until I got jumped by those heartless. Sure he's nearby, he couldn't have gotten that far from here."

The two left the cave and ventured back out into the mountains. Now that the blizzard had died down, they had an easier time navigating around the area. "Surprised you don't want my sisters dead after all the time you spent with them. Must've been a pain in the ass."

"No worse than you."

"You know I'm only gonna let you make a few more potshots like that before I slit your throat."

"You walked yourself into that one."

"You're gonna walk yourself into my sword soon."

"Makes sense. You did want me to cut my arm off anyways."

"...Goddamnit, why'd you have to bring _that_ up?"

After trudging through the snow for a while, they encountered a signpost pointing to Lindblum alongside a makeshift bridge they had to walk across. "Huh, we're actually going in the right direction," Zero said.

"Because I'm leading," Riku said.

"Shut up. We still haven't found my dumbass dragon and we're almost at the village. That's it-" She cupped her hands around her mouth. "HELLOOOO? HEY, STUPID DRAGON! WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Bad idea to yell, Zero."

"Heh, forget how chicken you are."

"Whatever you say."

Her loud yells reached all the way to the mountaintops, inadvertently causing a massive avalanche that swept Zero right off the bridge. On the other hand, Riku had the foresight to jump away before the wave of snow could take him out, then once everything settled, he dropped down to Zero's position as she was burying herself out.

"What? It's not my fault that stupid pussy snow came out of nowhere," Zero said.

"Kind of is."

"Well, you could've at least warned me, dickhead!"

"I did and as usual, you didn't listen to me."

She crossed her arms. ' _I fucking hate when he's right.'_

They scaled the walls of the mountain back up to their original position where they ran into a horde of enemy soldiers.

"It's the she-devil who murdered the generals!"

"And the demon slayer! Are they working together?!"

"We'll kill them both for the honor of our generals and Lady Four!"

Riku summoned his keyblade. "Here we go."

"You should uh... sit this one out," Zero said.

"What- why? I can still fight!"

"You'd only get in the way." Gripping her sword in her hands, she made wide sweeping slash attacks to quickly mow through the soldiers and threw in a few sword jabs to spice it up. When Zero turned to meet Riku, he looked pissed off at her.

"Just because my arm's in a sling doesn't mean I can't fight anymore. Did you forget that I saved your butt out there yesterday?"

"God, can't you just be happy that I did a favor for you?

"Look, if this is about-"

"What? I can't hear your bitching right now, there's a bunch of soldier guys up ahead."

"Zero!"

But she already ran away to the empty plot of snow.

"So where are these soldier guys you have to kill again?" Riku asked, walking up behind her.

"Well, obviously they got scared and ran off."

"Yeah right, they weren't even here to begin with! Though, I do sense the presence of a slimy creature nearby."

"Heartless?"

"Them too."

It took a moment for her to register his subtle insult and she took it unusually well. "Heh, I'll admit, that wasn't half bad, _but_ you've officially pissed me off so you better watch yourself."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm terrified."

"I'm this close to shoving my sword down your throat."

All of a sudden, they heard a booming voice rupture through the skies. "—HUH?! RIKU?! IS THAT REALLY YOU?! Zero too BUT MOSTLY RIKU!" Mikhail descended from the white clouds and landed in front of them. "It is you, Riku! Riku's here, I- I looked for you! I looked everywhere for you!"

Riku couldn't help himself from smiling like an idiot as he ran to Mikhail. He reached over to pet his head, but Mikhail ended up knocking him down in excitement. "Come on Mikhail, you have to pull yourself together!"

"I'll be okay now that you're here! I got so much to tell you about all the stuff that happened while you were gone!"

"I can't wait to hear it. Looks like we'll both have plenty of stories to share with each other!"

While the two reunited, Zero was rolling her eye so hard, she thought it would fall to the back of her skull. _'They're so happy it's disgusting.'_ "Did you two idiots forget we have shit to do?"

"Hee hee, I didn't forget about your sister Zero. Come on, hop on my back you two, let's go find Four!"

However, just as they boarded the white dragon, a titan sized soldier buried itself out from the heaps of snow. It was such a massive enemy that the size of just one of its sword-arms rivaled Mikhail's entire body.

"At least it's not a heartless," Zero said.

And it was a heartless.

"FUCK!"

"I'll take care of this one," Riku said.

"Yay! I can't wait to see Riku's cool moves in action again! Maybe we can even try a combo move or something," Mikhail said.

"Sure, buddy."

"Whoa-whoa- a nickname that's not mean?! I didn't even think that was possible."

"Both of you shut up, no one's doing shit. Just keep flying, dummy."

The Titan swung its enormous sword-arms at Mikhail who luckily managed to fly just under the blade, but its attack wasn't over quite yet. Due to the darkness that was coursing through its body, the Titan was able to detach its arm and control it from afar. The sword changed direction mid-air so it could have another go at trying to slice Mikhail in half.

"Looks like running away's not an option. Besides, it'll cause more destruction if I don't destroy it now." Riku jumped off Mikhail, then clashed blade-to-blade with the Titan's colossal sword.

"Wow! That was so awesome! Let me help you too Riku!"

"No, you idiot! We have our own fight to worry about!" Zero screamed, pointing at the other sword arm that was spinning right at them.

' _I hope my body doesn't get sliced in fucking half by doing this.'_ Zero readied her sword and prepared to strike, but Mikhail caught her completely off guard by clamping down on the blade with his teeth.

"What...the fuck?"

"Watch me do something cool too you guys!"

With the sword clenched tightly in his jaw, Mikhail flew all the way to the Titan, then struck the sword straight through its armored body. The darkness holding the armor together collapsed in of itself. To put an end to its existence once and for all, Riku released the hearts from the darkness with one final sword strike, then returned to Mikhail.

"Nice! That was awesome, Mikhail," Riku said.

"Thanks! I just followed my heart like you told me!"

"Gross. You two are gonna make me barf," Zero said.

"So did I convince you that you don't have to worry about me anymore or do we have to fight another titan?" Riku asked.

"The only thing you convinced me of is that you're a dumbass with a death wish. It's like losing your arm wasn't enough for you to quit."

"Because I'm not a coward who turns their back on people."

"Yeah I get it, you're the self-righteous hero and I'm the shitty one, but people like you are the ones that die first. All that 'strength' you have will mean fuck all if you're dead."

"I know, that's why I won't die."

"That's...not how it fucking works, but whatever. I can't stop you from being an idiot." She turned away from him. "Hey dragon, I hope you're flying in the right direction and not wandering around!"

"I'm not wandering around! I promise! It's just really hard to sense Four's presence right now."

"She's in some place called Lindblum so head there."

"Got it...uh where is that again?"

"Just head north, I'll tell you where to land."

"'Kay!"

Mikhail ended up locating Lindblum, but he wasn't able to safely land anywhere due to the entire village now crawling with heartless. "Me and Zero will go down, just stay up here away from the heartless Mikhail," Riku said, getting ready to jump.

"You got it, bro!"

Zero's face scrunched up. "Never say that again."

"But I wanna say cool nicknames like you guys!"

"Can't go wrong with dumbass..." She muttered.

"I heard that!"

"I didn't! What'd she say? What'd she say?"

"Don't worry about it. You should start calling Zero 'annoying' and 'obnoxious' since that's all she ever is."

Zero responded by shoving Riku off of Mikhail, then jumped down next. She already knew he was going to be pissed off at her, but seeing his brief 'oh shit' face was worth it. As soon as she landed on the ground, Riku got back at her by dumping a huge pile of snow on her.

"Thanks, asshole. I was already freezing my tits off."

"You deserved it."

"And you deserve death. So where's Four supposed to be?"

Riku led Zero to the Inn, but when they got inside, it looked like a scene from a horror movie. Blood was splattered all across the walls and all the residents, including the Innkeeper, were dead, their corpses being fed upon by heartless. "No...did I come too late?" He rushed over to Four's room only to discover that she was gone and her space was completely trashed.

"Damn, this place is a mess. Sure you two didn't have sex?" Zero asked, kicking away shards of glass.

He glared at her.

"Okay, I guess that's off the table then. Four's probably still around this area though, we'll just have to keep looking."

"—If I were you, I'd give it up."

Riku and Zero turned around to find Dito standing in the doorway.

Zero looked him up and down. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Name's Dito. Used to be a disciple of Five, now I'm Intoner-less. You're that Zero Intoner I keep hearing about, right?"

"Yep."

"Did you see where Four went? And what happened here?" Riku asked.

"Four went crazy, then a shitload of heartless attacked the place. I could fend for myself, but the other guys weren't so lucky, I mean did you see the Innkeeper? Her fuckin' guts were-"

"Did you see where Four went or not?"

He shrugged. "Nah, but I did hear her talk about wanting to lure you guys into a trap so I wouldn't even bother finding her."

"Like I'm scared about whatever pussy trap she has. We're _finding_ her virgin ass," Zero said.

"Alright, alright, geez. Just giving you a heads up."

"Then let's get going, we got all the information we need from this place. Oh, and Dito, you're coming with me."

"Eh, sure, but let me look at that Innkeeper one last time! Stuff like that gets burned into your brain!"

"NOW!"

"Fiiiiiiine."

As the three left the Inn and were on their way back to Mikhail, Dito decided it was a good time to bring up awkward conversation. "Sooo you two aren't like...'together' now, are you?"

"What- NO! No way in hell," Riku said.

"You don't have to sound so disgusted, asshole!" Zero said.

"Huh, wouldn't have guessed it. Pretty boy here was talking all types of shit about you, figured you two went through a messy breakup or something."

"Wait, this prick was talking shit about me?!" She whipped her head to him. " _I_ wasn't even talking shit about you!"

"I barely said anything about you and when I did, it was nothing I didn't already tell you to your face."

"Like I believe that garbage! What the fuck did he say about me, Dito?"

' _Man do I love causing shit.'_ "You know, I did hear the bitch word thrown around a couple of times, I couldn't believe it myself either. He seemed like a pretty decent guy."

"I knew it!"

"He's lying! Also, are we forgetting that you're the biggest jerk here?"

"Second to you!"

Due to their loud arguing, Mikhail didn't have a hard time finding them and was flapping down to their location. "Aw come on, I leave you guys alone for a second and you're already fighting again!"

"-You're lucky he's here," Zero hissed.

He rolled his eyes.

"Oh cool! You made a new friend Zero!"

"Don't get too excited. He's just a disciple."

"Hey, don't sell me short already! I'm Dito, what's yours, big guy?"

"Mikhail!"

"Gotcha. Gotta say, must be cool having a dragon as a partner."

Zero eyed him. "You're on thin ice."

"Wh-oa, get your mind out of the gutter, Z. I meant as a friend, but I wouldn't put it past ya if this isn't the only time you're riding him."

"Whaddya mean? Zero rides me aaaaall the time!"

"Wait- seriously?"

"Yep! Every day!"

"Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about you idiot!" Zero barked.

"Hmph! You don't have to be a meanie! So where do you guys gotta go anyways?"

"I saw a fortress up ahead. Four might be holed up in there," Zero said.

"Doubt it. She travels by airship so I think we should check the sky first," Riku said

"The sky? Never even thought of that. I knew there was a reason why I kept you around."

Mikhail ascended higher, sailing past the clouds. "Riku's right, I do sense an Intoner's presence now that we're way up here!"

"Good, let's find her as soon as possible. I'm freezing," Zero said.

"Really, you're cold? Feel's great up here to me!"

"Unlike you, I'm not made of blubber and scales."

"Could've had me fooled," Dito said with a chuckle.

"You wanna die?"

"Yikes, someone's in a bad mood."

"Nah, she's always like this," Riku said.

"Do _both_ of you wanna die?"

Mikhail slowed down. "Uh-oh, looks like there's danger ahead!"

"What is it this time?!"

What could be described as a giant, red ball of flesh came flying at them with its small wings. A disgusting site for sure, but it was on par for the enemies in Midgard.

"Holy shit! Whatever that thing is, it looks so gross!" Dito exclaimed.

"Why do you sound so happy then? Kill it, dragon."

"Sure thing!" He breathed out scorching flames that should've easily taken care of the flesh ball, but small, dragon-like creatures began peeling themselves out from the ball one by one until there was an army of them surrounding the trio.

"Those guys dragons?"

"They aren't dragons! They're WYVERNS!" Mikhail gasped. "No good, scumbag, dragon-wannabes!"

"At least they're just regular enemies," Zero said.

And they were all heartless.

"FUCK! Why do I even bother?!"

"Four must've mutated more heartless. This could be the trap she was talking about," Riku said.

"Heartless or not they're still stupid wyverns! They can't even talk, or understand language! Now that's pretty stupid if you ask me! And don't even get me started on those pathetic wings!" Mikhail ranted.

"Damn, didn't know dragons could be so racist. Hate to be a wyvern right about now," Dito said.

"You'd be surprised. Most dragons are pretty damn proud, though mine is just a dolt most of the time," Zero said.

"If you guys don't hate dirty-stinking wyverns already, you will today! I'm gonna roast all these dragon-wannabees! I'm gonna roast 'em ALL!" Mikhail shot out a round of fireballs at rapid-fire speed and deadly precision, wiping out all the wyverns within the vicinity.

"Maybe take it down a notch, Mikhail," Riku said.

"Wha- but why?! I gotta give them what they deserve!"

The wyverns Mikhail thought he destroyed were all reborn again from the darkness.

"Oh, that's why."

Just like before, the wyverns fused together to form another pulsing ball of flesh, but this time around, darkness began seeping out of it.

"Not good! Watch out, Mikhail!"

"Don't worry about me! Those wyverns can't touch me!"

The ball of wyvern flesh spun around, shooting out an onslaught of dark fireballs that came barreling at Mikhail, so he used his wings to guard against the attack.

"How are you just _now_ starting to become competent?!" Zero grumbled.

"'Cause I'm not letting no-good wyverns beat me! Okay Riku, we gotta work together so we can DESTROY these guys!"

"Mikhail, just get me close to them and I'll handle the rest," Riku said.

"No problem!" Mikhail flew to the ball of wyverns, then propped open his mouth and sunk his fangs down into their flesh so he could hold them in place. "Ish thwis gwood enuff Wiku?"

"Uh...yeah." Even Riku was startled by how headstrong Mikhail of all dragons had suddenly gotten. "Nice work."

Running off of Mikhail's head, Riku dug his keyblade into the ball of wyvern flesh, slashing at it multiple times, then finally ending its miserable existence with Zantetsuken.

"Woo-hoo! We did it! We did it! We beat all those slimy wyverns!"

"Gotta hand it to you, Z. Your dragon's pretty metal," Dito said.

"Save the ass-kissing Dito, we still have an Intoner to find."

"—You got it all wrong, my wayward sister. I'm the one who's found you." Four's airship cut through the clouds like a knife, with the Intoner of the hour standing at the ship's deck. She snapped her fingers together and a green enchantment circle enclosed around Mikhail. "Ha, I knew you dolts would fall for that."

"What the hell is this?!"

"You'll see, just sit back and watch! You two disgusting traitors are in for it now!"

"Listen to me Four! Stop this, now! The only reason why I'm here is to help you!" Riku yelled out.

"And why on earth would I listen to the man who ripped my heart into a million pieces, then shat all over it? As far as I'm concerned, you're dead to me Riku!"

"Man, what'd you do to her to piss her off like this?" Dito asked.

"Nothing!"

"YOU LIAR! You abandoned me when I needed you the most, then ran back to my sister because you think she's prettier than me!"

" _None_ of that is true! I'm sorry for leaving you, but I came back to help you fight your darkness! If you don't end this, you're going to get destroyed!"

"I don't care if this is the end! If I can't be happy, then NO ONE WILL!" Four started screaming at the top of her lungs, commencing her Intoner song.

"Behold, the Fourth song: Impenetrable Shield of Antiquity! The rare power granted to our own, the stout citadel that protects us. Cast your blighted sins upon these very skies! I, Decadus, summon thee in my name...Armaros, Uphold!"

**ARMAROS**

**Verse 1-4**

**-Reprise-**

_Until the day I disappear, I must hide myself from the world._

_For all it brings me is shame._

_Until the day I disappear, I must always kill my wandering heart._

_For all it brings me is shame._

A gigantic citadel emerged from the heavens with a force field and chain links of Intoner magic surrounding it.

"Wow, Four's daemon sucks more than Five's," Dito said.

"What's going on?" Riku asked.

"Four just summoned her daemon," Zero said.

"What?!"

"Yeah, guess I should've told you about this earlier."

"You think?!"

Zero unsheathed her blade. "Well, we tried everything, time to kill her."

"We're not doing that! Whatever this thing is, we can stop it!"

"-NO YOU CAN'T! You said I had a lot of darkness in my heart Riku! Remember that?! Well, now I'm sharing that with the whole WORLD!"

The skies turned pitch black from all the heartless that were now circling around Armaros as if the daemon itself was a beacon for darkness. If that wasn't bad enough, due to the Intoner's song, hundreds of heartless were now mutating as well.

"I can never hope to be as good of a person as you are! I can't even pretend to be! So why don't you all just DROP DEAD?"

"Fuck! Get out of here you dummy! Now!"

"I- I can't! I can't fly away from her magic circle thing! This is super scary guys!"

The turrets on the citadel were aiming themselves at Mikhail who couldn't fly away, so if they didn't think of something and quick they'd be shot out of the sky soon.

"Damn it! I'm not letting it end like this!"

**Verse 6**

_I become nothing as I am unwound by death,_

_Each rebirth, I lose myself, little by little_

_But to destroy the flower that harbors death,_

_I must lose everything I hold dear_

The power of Zero's Intoner song far exceeded that of Four's and she was able to break the magic that kept them imprisoned, allowing Mikhail to fly away at the nick of time. Despite the close save, their fight was nowhere near to being over.

"Any bright ideas, keyblade? We're kind of impending death right about now."

"I'm with her. Seeing _other_ people die is cool and all, but it sucks when it happens to you," Dito said.

Zero glanced back to Dito. "You're pretty sick, aren't you?"

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Then she looked over to Riku. "Well? We're waiting on you."

"Bring me to the castle as close as you can."

"Alright. Ready, dummy?"

"Yep!"

Mikhail weaved past the approaching cannonballs and was now flying over one of the four watchtowers that contained an eye of Armaros. "Aah! We're gonna get sucked into that thing!" He furiously flapped his wings in an attempt to escape, but the Intoner's song was especially powerful now that they were close to her daemon.

"Just calm down and watch where you're aiming!"

"I'll just jump off here," Riku said.

"You'll WHAT?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"Someone has to get through to Four, I'll find her and you take this castle down! Watch out for the heartless!" Jumping off of Mikhail, he used airstep to safely land on the citadel where he was immediately targeted by automated turrets. Although it was hardly a challenge since he was exceptionally fast with his keyblade and deflected all of the bullets as if it were nothing. However, it was the mutated heartless infiltrating the citadel grounds that posed much more of a threat.

At first glance, the heartless appeared to be base-level Red Nocturne enemies albeit with one too many heads, but when Riku threw his keyblade for a circle raid attack, one of them combusted like a bomb upon impact. The explosion started a chain reaction that resulted in a blazing explosion.

' _What the heck are these heartless?'_ Riku's keyblade protected him from the explosion, but the citadel itself now had a giant crater carved into it. ' _This is crazy!'_

After running further down the citadel, he finally spotted Four's airship flying away. ' _Of course she'd try to run from the own mess she created, I'm not letting you get away._ ' As fate would have it, Four too fell victim to the heartless as a swarm of mutated flying soldiers began to target her.

' _I guess that worked out in my favor. Change of plans then.'_ Riku had a running start right off the edge of the citadel, then soared to her airship with airstep.

When Riku landed on the deck, he destroyed the mutated heartless, but Four was already lying on the ground next to Decadus, spraying out blood from the parts where her body was bitten into. Even more alarming was the darkness seeping out of her, signifying that she would soon begin her transformation into a heartless.

Decadus lowered his head. "There were so many of those demons...I just couldn't keep up and wasn't able to protect her. Oh, if only it could've been me who bore their attack instead. What a worthless disciple, I am. Now all is lost."

"No. There's still time left to save her and I know just what to do." He pointed his keyblade at her chest. "Let's see who you really are, Four."

.

.

.

After successfully using the Power of Waking on Four, Riku was falling down into a black chasm where the only light that waited for him was a stained glass pillar serving as Four's station of awakening. He touched down on the pillar, careful to watch his step, then looked around. Representative of her own heart, the stained glass was full of so many holes, he couldn't even see her portrait.

' _This is about what I expected for her.'_ As Riku walked towards the center, black tendrils snaked over the pillar, filling the holes with darkness. When he tried to find the source of the darkness, all he could see was a black flower in full bloom that was leeching off the edge of the pillar.

"A...flower?"

_**That is how I appear to mortal eyes.** _

' _It's speaking to me?'_ "So...what are you exactly? Are you just a manifestation of Four's darkness?"

_**No, far more than that. I am her very essence.** _

_**I am why she's allowed to live and breathe in this world.** _

_**If you're here to destroy me, then so will you destroy her.** _

"I'm not here to destroy her darkness, but I am here to stop you from corrupting her heart."

Riku summoned his keyblade, then shot at the black flower, dodging its black tendrils along the way. He swept his blade up high in the air and was about to bash its petals in when the tendrils snatched his body, immobilizing him.

_**I sense the dark power sleeping within you.** _

_**Yes...you are perfect.** _

_**You are the one who will destroy this world.** _

_**And all worlds to come after.** _

"No! You're wrong! I won't destroy this-" The tendrils slithered around his face, covering his mouth first, then his eyes and everything went ██████████ "No! I'm not falling back into the ███████████ "...I'm not..." █████████████████████████████████"No..."

_"Aw, c'mon, Riku. You've been hanging around darkness for too long. You gotta try and think positive."_

_"Riku, you're not alone. Listen careful now, Riku. The light'll never give up on you. You'll always find it, even in the deepest darkness! But you have to believe!"_

Even in the depths of darkness, Riku found his light and escaped from the black flower's clutches. He landed back on the pillar, then flipped his keyblade around in his hand. ' _Something's different now. I can feel all of my magic coursing back through me.'_ He pointed the blade at the black flower. "Bind."

Golden chains manifested from his keyblade, then wrapped around the black flower until all of its darkness was contained within the spell. "That spell may only be temporary, but it won't be long before Four's light outshines your darkness."

_**You're mistaken.** _

The light was restored, and yet there was something deeply wrong. That's when Riku came upon a horrifying realization. The right arm he thought was gone forever had miraculously restored itself as if he never lost it, and worst of all, embedded within the palm of his hand was a black petal.

_**I will give you the strength to carry out your desires.** _

_**So as long as you remain bound to me.** _

Once the black petal had sunken into his hand, the roman numeral 'IV' appeared on his forearm like a tattoo. It was a symbol of the newfound darkness he now carried within him.

_**If you want to be this world's savior, so will you become its martyr.** _

_._

_._

_._

While Riku was in the trenches of Four's heart, Mikhail was flying towards the airship.

"-Ah! Zero!" Mikhail exclaimed.

"What?"

"Something's weird...I can't sense Four's Intoner presence anymore!"

"That is weird. No way Riku had the balls to kill Four off and I doubt she'd kill herself either."

"Heh, we're not that lucky," Dito said.

"I'll check this out myself. Dito, watch my dragon."

"Hey! I didn't sign up to be a dragon-sitter!"

"Just shut up and watch him!" She dropped down to Four's airship and was surprised to find Four was still alive. Although her being covered in blood from head to toe and Riku being the one who was lying cold on the ground didn't give Zero the best impression so she reached for her sword. "What the fuck did you do to him?!"

"Nothing- nothing! I swear, he's just asleep!"

"Why the FUCK is he asleep?"

"I don't know! That's what I'm trying to figure out...he saved my life."

"Well, I'm about to end it!" She marched over to her.

"H-Hold on Zero! I-I know you hate me, I don't blame you, but please don't kill me! A-at least not yet! When Riku wakes up, I want him to know that whatever he did...changed something inside me. And it would be in your best interest to know what happened as well."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I believe I lost my powers as an Intoner, either that or they've become suppressed. I can feel it, I no longer have the power of song, and I bet my mark as an Intoner's disappeared too." She pointed to her forehead and sure enough, the 'IV' tattoo had vanished.

She shook her head. "None of this is making any goddamn sense. How the fuck are you still breathing?! You're not a real fucking person! Oh my god..." Her mind was going into overdrive trying to process everything.

Fortunately, right before Zero could develop a migraine, Riku woke up from his slumber having returned to the Realm of Light, or as close to the light as Midgard to get.

"YOU!" Zero forced him up off the ground, then grabbed his collar. "Explain to me what the hell's going on!"

"I dove into Four's heart...?"

"I'm serious! Is this some type of exorcism shit or whatever?"

"What? No, I just- never mind. You wouldn't get it. All you need to know is that Four won't be a problem anymore. Her darkness won't destroy her."

"And for that, I owe you my life." Four walked up to them, then got down on her hands and knees in apology, shocking them both. It was probably the first time she'd shown an ounce of genuine humility towards anyone. "I...I don't even know where to begin. I've caused so many terrible things...I just want to make things right again."

Riku approached her. "You've already pretended to be a good person before, so why don't you actually try being one for a change?"

She stood up then held her hands together as if they were in chains. "Then I-I'm willing to offer myself up as a prisoner to repent for my crimes, do your worst to me, I don't care!"

"No slow down, I meant that you should fight to protect the light in this world, not push it closer to darkness. You still have this whole country you messed up, you should be doing everything to help your people."

"Uh...let's just say they weren't exactly my people to begin with. So if they haven't lost their minds already, then surely they're lining up to claim my head."

"Yeah, I don't blame them," Zero said.

"P-Perhaps there's another way I can help! Our other sisters are still causing destruction and I'm afraid what Three's been doing to her people in the Land of Forests far exceeds my crimes. I'll be happy to take you to her location, hopefully you can even save her like you've done with me!"

"That's a good start," Riku said.

"I'm still not buying this I'm-not-an-Intoner-anymore bullshit." She stepped up to her. "If I so much as _hear_ a rumor of you using your Intoner powers again, you can bet your ass I will be splattering your virgin guts all over the ground. Do you understand?"

"Y-Yes, ma'am! And I promise I won't ruin this second chance you've given me! I'll work hard so I can be the type of person Riku is!" She sent him a smile in his direction.

"Whatever, just get out of my face after you drop us off. And I'll be taking your man too, not like you ever used him to begin with."

"By all means, I have no need for him. Suddenly, I no longer harbor any salacious thoughts or feelings."

"Didn't ask." She waved over for Decadus. "Go clean up. Front AND rear. We'll meet tonight."

Decadus slowly fell down to his knees, his breathing heavy. "F-Front AND..." He could hardly spit the word out. "R-rear?"

"Yep. Hope you're not too tight back there."

Meanwhile, Riku had departed from the Intoners and was once again leaning on the guardrail. In typical Riku fashion, he'd fallen into deep thought as he tried to puzzle everything together. ' _Zero's hiding something crucial about her sisters. She doesn't actually want to kill them for their actions, but because of their Intoner powers, and I think they're linked to that black flower._ '

He put his fist into his palm. ' _That's right. A black flower also sprouted from Five's heartless so that means all Intoners must have those flowers in their hearts. Zero knew this, that's why she kept insisting that she didn't want me to get involved and now I know why. I just wish I could ask her about this, but if she finds out what really happened, then there's no doubt in my mind that she's going to kill the rest of her sisters.'_

Riku looked up at the heartless infested sky, then summoned his keyblade in his newly restored arm. "That's right. I have to think positive now, don't I? I'll figure out what to do along the way and make sure this world doesn't fall to darkness."

_When all was said done,_

_The Keyblade wielder and the Intoner believed they'd won._

_The light had been restored_

_The Fourth Intoner was no more._

_But...as they'll soon come to find,_

_They were closer to their demise now more than ever before_.

**Flowers for the Dead**

****

****

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok , I'm soooo sorry this took way longer than I expected to get out. Consider this chapter a finale to the Land of Mountains, next chapter will be a semi-filler content then to the Land of Forests. Also, next artwork I post will be the long-awaited genderbent Riku.


	9. "The Day Midgard Stood Still"

***sometime during 999 AD***

_Experiment Notes #07 (I lost the other ones...oops)_

_**Demons** _

_Month X / Day X_

_I don't usually like to keep track of these things….frankly they're bothersome. But something astounding happened today that made me want to record my thoughts. It all started when I dragged Octa along with me to do "field work" for my newly enhanced soldiers._

The Land of Forests was home to many oddities, every fantastical race from elves to faeries thrived within the densely wooded lands, but no one was odder than the ruler herself; Three. She had peculiar habits and a way of carrying herself that made her off-putting at times to her other sisters, though she was hardly concerned with them. The only thing at the forefront of the Intoner's mind was her dolls and in her world, anything and anyone could become one.

Three's latest creations were enhanced soldiers that she decided to experimentally test before deploying them out to the regular forces. Tonight, she was on her way to the field site with her insatiable disciple, Octa, by her side to gauge their progress.

"Lady Three, if I may ask, why did you decide to depart from the shrine at such an ungodly hour? It's important to sleep a healthy amount in order to have peak performance. Oh ho ho- of course I always have peak performance, no matter the hour, but a young lady yourself should prioritize rest. Especially after a long night of, ahem, doing the devil's dance," Octa said.

She shrugged. "I was awake at this hour... I wanted to check on Edward and Alphonse."

Eventually, Three stopped at a forest clearing. "Here." She gestured to the two bulky soldiers duking it out under the moonlight. Then she smiled at Octa in a way that always sent shivers to his groin. "Look. Their development is coming along nicely."

"Uh, yes, they're certainly fighting each other, my lady. What's different about these soldiers than the ones you made for Lady One?"

"I've made some slight...modifications to their frontal lobes so they'll be more obedient." Three took out her journal and was about to take a closer look at them when several black creatures clawed themselves out from the darkness.

There was something about the yellow, beady eyes of the heartless and their shadowy presence that held Three's attention hostage. "They're...cute." She wanted to go pet one of them, but Octa stood in front of her with his arms stretched out.

"Move."

"Oh heavens no my lady, we have no business messing with these demons. We should just head back to the shrine where it's safe...and the only demon is the one in my trousers, eh?"

But it was already too late, Three was wholeheartedly fixated on the heartless and would stop at nothing to fulfill her desires. Shoving Octa out of the way, she was on her way to the creatures of darkness when she heard her disciple calling out for her.

" —Watch out Lady Three!"

Out of all of her sisters, Three was the most susceptible to tunnel vision when it came to something that piqued her interest. She didn't even realize that she accidentally walked in between her soldiers as they were dueling and now there was a giant axe swinging towards her head.

In a split second reaction, Three snapped her head back so the blade would fly over her rather than lodge into her head. It was a surprising feat considering her lazy disposition, but she was determined to not let anything stop her from reaching the heartless.

Unfortunately, despite her best efforts, the heartless jumped away from her just as she was approaching them and it stole the heart of one of her soldiers. Right before Three's eyes, the soldier began the process of turning into a heartless.

The moment Three saw her once proud soldier—her Alphonse—become shrouded in a veil of darkness and slowly morph into nothing more than a beast, that's when she became obsessed.

' _Whatever those demons are, I want to dissect a hundred- no a thousand of them!'_

The newborn heartless reared its ugly head and snarled its sharp fangs at Three, hungry to tear her body to shreds, but all she did was stand there in awe of its presence. Her ever twisted mind was practically exploding at the endless possibilities this new demon species would afford. At the other end of the spectrum, Octa was scrambling to get to Three.

"Lady Three!" He flung his chakram at the heartless, which did little more than cut its head off, then grabbed Three by the hand so he could forcibly drag her out of her harm's way.

"...Let me go, Octa."

"Oh ho, that I can't do. Trust me, this is for your own good."

Three was too lazy to put up a decent fight, so she let Octa take her away and she watched the heartless slowly disappear into the horizon.

_Octa took me away from those little demons. I don't know why. It was just when I was starting to really like them too. I was sad when I came back to my shrine because I thought I'd never see them again. But when I came down to my lab I wasn't sad anymore. The demons followed me all the way back to my lab and I was really happy to see them. I like to think they were just waiting for me to experiment on them ^_^_

—

_Experiment Notes #082 (uh, what number was I on again? I don't remember…)_

_**Love** _

_Month X / Day X_

_I've been having a lot of fun tinkering with the demons. There's all sorts of things you can do with them. For example, when I used my Intoner song, they changed their physical appearance and behavior. But they still madly crave the life force of living creatures. I tried to get Octa to play with my demons too. But he's deathly afraid of them. Weirdo. They're cute and obedient. They're my little dolls. What's to be afraid of?_

_Um...what else? Oh yeah, I was having a problem a few days ago. Then I fixed it._

Unlike her other sisters, Three's shrine had a built-in underground laboratory where she was cooped up for long spans of time. It wasn't unusual for Octa to find her snoring on her operating table rather than on her bed, and today's affairs were no different. She was knee deep in her heartless research and had already accumulated dozens of different species to experiment on to her disposal.

"Heh heh...it'll only hurt more if you keep squirming..." Three was in the middle of slicing open the stomach of a large body heartless when she heard pounding at her door. ' _I don't want to get up. Maybe if I ignore it, it'll go away.'_

*knock- Knock-KNock

"Lady Three- this is General Ravus- there's something very important I must discuss with you at this instant!"

' _He can wait a few more minutes. I'm not done yet.'_

*KNOck-KNOCk-KNOCK

"Lady Three! Lady Three, this is urgent!"

Annoyed at his persistence, she snapped her fingers and one of her heartless opened the door so her bumbling soldier could enter in. Normally, Octa would've handled the door opening responsibilities, but lately, he'd been spending less and less time around her while she got more invested with the heartless. Not that she cared, after all, her love belonged to her obsessions.

Three stood up and dragged her feet to Ravus. "What?"

Ravus bowed down to her. "I apologize for the intrusion, but something devastating happened to my unit that I need to address with you.

"...What?"

"Well, you see..." He motioned to all the heartless locked inside the glass containers she had stacked around her lab. "Those...demons...that you've taken a liking to, unfortunately, they turned all of my men into demons as well, and I've lost control of my region."

"That's...too bad."

"I was wondering if you had some sort of remedy to turn them back."

She shrugged. "The thought hadn't occurred to me."

"Ah I see, that's a shame." He tapped his foot on the ground. "If only there was some way us soldiers could command the demons like you then we'd be an unstoppable force! No one would dare lay their hands on our Lady Three!"

She thought to herself for a moment. ' _Where my soldiers lack in strength, the demons make up for, but demons aren't capable of any sort of higher intelligence. It's not like I can have one without the other.'_

"A-And Lady Three, might I add...I hope this doesn't come across as rude but you appear different." He rubbed the back of his head. "Maybe it's because I don't get a chance to look at your beautiful face often, but I don't recall you ever having yellow eyes before."

"Yellow? Strange." Her yellow eyes wandered back to the large body heartless still strapped to her operating table. ' _Seems I've taken after my beloved demons. That opens up a world of possibilities.'_ "General...there's nothing lost, that may be found, if sought."

"Ah, that's very poetic, you always did have a way with words! So what you're saying is that you can help my men after all?"

"Yes." A smile spread across her face. "When I'm done...the soldiers will have no reason to fear the demons. Return tomorrow. Early. I want to show you my...experimental steps."

"Y-Yes ma'am! I'll return here at once! Bright and early!"

The next day, Ravus returned to Three's lab as promised. Although this time he wore light armor that was unbefitting of a general and didn't even bother to bring his helmet just to show off that he was quite handsome in the face. "Hello Lady Three, so what are these _experimental steps_ you wanted to show me?"

Three directed him to the operating table. "Sit."

"Yeah, no problem. Want me to take my armor off too?"

"No."

"Aw, we aren't going to be having too much fun like this! Unless you like a guy in uniform~"

"Lay down."

"Heh heh, no problem."

She strapped him down to the operating table, which stirred worry in Ravus' heart.

"Uh...what're you doing exactly, my lady?"

"Making you stronger."

"Of course- for better to serve you!"

Three summoned several heartless that slithered from the ground to his body.

"H-how is this- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"You talk too much." Three's face was the last thing Ravus saw before she sang a lullaby to put him into a permanent sleep.

**Verse 1-3**

_Sleep. I shall give thee death._

After the song's end, Ravus was no longer a man. The heartless fused together with his body in a disgusting amalgamation of human flesh and darkness that made him stuck in the limbo between human and monster. Before his mind could go gentle into that good night, he stumbled towards Three, trying to reach out to her one last time, so she put her hand on his head and forced him to bow down to her. "Good boy, Ravus."

" **W̴̳̝͔͗̈́͘͝h̵͓̜͍͌y̷͍̟̎͜ ̷̬̹̽́̐̉L̷̘̼͠ȃ̷͕̓̿̊d̶̛͖̥̣͌̌ͅŷ̷͇͕͉̱̊̃͘ ̵̡̱͗͜T̴̪̂̂̚͘h̷̪̭̜̀̈́͘͝r̴͉͒̔͌ͅe̸̜̅̑̊é̶͍.̶̨͓̊̒̓͐.̸̡̨̦̰͛̕.̶̫͒̄I̶͎̾͝ ̴̤͋̂͝a̸͙̺̋̅̌d̵̖̝͕͕̐̿̒̈́o̸̩͑r̸̡̽͗é̸̖͖̩̽͠d̵̛̻̂̐̑ ̷̺̪̿̽̕̚ỳ̶̧̼̭͓̑ǫ̴̒̎͑̕ͅû̵̙͎͇͊͑͘"**

"You will have no fear of what's already a part of you."

_I decided to fuse together one of my soldiers with my demons. It was pretty ingenious actually. Now my soldiers don't ever have to worry about getting turned into demons or dying—or feeling sad— or anything bad really since they're dolls now. Kind of makes me envious of them a little bit..._

—

_Experiment Notes #358 (I lost count)_

_**Sisters...annoy me** _

_Month X / Day X_

_It turns out most of my sisters really hate the demons. One wants nothing to do with them and doesn't want us to mess with them either. Two's still...gone...but her disciple said that he wants them eradicated. Four incorrectly said they basically eat people, but that's not true at all. I've studied them myself. They eat the life force of their host. Then it turns them into demons as well. It's pretty cool, but they don't understand._

_Well, that's not true I guess. Five likes the demons too. Not for the reason I like them, but she's always been that way. She's actually coming to my shrine today because she wants to learn how to control the demons like I do. She never visits..._

For once, Three was in her room today because Octa offered to cut her hair in preparation for Five's visit. She hadn't realized how long it gotten, it was practically dragging across the floor like in one of the fairy tale stories she used to read as a child.

"I do hope Lady Five encourages you to go outside, you've been getting a bit sickly looking."

"Guess I forgot."

"Seems like you've forgotten a lot since you rarely leave that lab of yours. My trouser snake is growing weary of the constant self-pleasuring I've had to endure, you know."

"Not my problem."

He shook his head. "Oh, you're the sadistic one, aren't you? Thankfully the company you're bringing today won't disappoint my rod of, erm, pleasure."

"...Just say your penis, Octa."

"Oh ho ho, but where's the fun in that?" After cutting her purple locs down to shoulder length, he went to her door. "Are you ready? I believe Lady Five should be here."

"Okay."

Three and Octa headed down the long, winding staircase to the entrance where Five was wasting outside. Once the doors opened, it was Five's cue to hug Three as hard as she could and squeal in excitement as if they hadn't seen each other just a few days ago.

"I'm ...going to ...suffocate... Five."

"Oh sorry, I'm just so happy to see you!" She clasped her hands together. "We're gonna have so much fun together big sister! Especially since you nag at me the least- by the way, I love the new look! The yellow eyes and white roots look gives you all the more creepy girl sex appeal, don't you think?"

She shrugged. "So ...shall we get started now or would you rather have dinner prepared first?"

"We can start with dinner! I hate working on an empty stomach, but I'll be the one to cook since you practically served raw food the last time."

"Works for me."

Octa cleared his throat. "-Ahem, let's not forget about our nightly activities either."

"What, so you can break your back again? No way, I swore off old, feeble people after my experience with you." She walked past him.

"Wait-wait-wait! Now hold on, first off, I'm not old, I'm 22 years young aaaand she's gone."

"That's rough, gramps. Believe me, I'd trade places with you in a heartbeat," Dito said.

"Let's not keep Five waiting," Three said, turning away.

Since Five was a downright lunatic with her cooking, most passed up on whatever abomination she would serve as a meal, but Three always ate her food up without question. Even today Three had no problem finishing off the 'ogre-soup surprise' Five made while their disciples were damn near close to passing out from disgust.

Five beamed at Three's empty bowl. "I'm so glad you liked dinner today Three. I even made enough for leftovers!"

"Good. No cooking tomorrow."

"Dear lord..." Octa groaned.

She stood up from the table. "Let's go. Follow me, Five."

"Right behind you! And why don't you two boys clean up for me while I'm gone, okay~"

Five followed Three to a secluded field behind her shrine. "Mmm, this place is perfect for all sorts of naughty things."

"Focus." Three walked into the center, then summoned a few shadow heartless from the depths of darkness. "They rise like the moon from the horizon."

"Uh-huh, but how'd you do that exactly?"

"It's like..."

"Yes, sis?"

"It's like...I feel a dark energy coursing through my veins that wills me to summon creatures of the night from a world outside of our own. I've been connected, tied to the darkness that ravages our lands and won't stop until everything and everyone is destroyed."

"Uuuuuhh-huuuuuh. Say that again, but in a way that makes sense."

"Think of all the negative emotions you have, then channel it into your own powers."

"That sounds easy enough." Five tried her hand at summoning heartless, but she still wasn't able to properly channel her darkness. "Or maybe not. Hmm did I mess something up?"

"Don't restrain yourself. You're good at that."

Five let her overwhelming greed fuel the darkness festering in her heart and she was finally able to draw the heartless into the world of light. "Yes!" She jumped up in the air, then immediately ran over to Three to squeeze the life out of her again. "You're the best, Three. Now I can have them do all of my dirty work!"

"...Just be cautious."

"Hm, why's that?"

"Those demons take no prisoners. They will destroy you if you let them..."

 _I apologize One. You didn't want us to use the demons, but I'm far too gone to turn back._ _Maybe I'll become a demon next. I wouldn't be surprised. I'm already half of one._

_No one knows why the heartless came to Midgard._

_Perhaps it was by chance._

_Or perhaps, it was because of the darkness the Intoners possessed._

_A darkness so powerful, nothing could withstand its path of destruction_

_Until everything and everyone is destroyed._

**Flowers for the Dead**

Fem!Riku to complete the Genderswap AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No memes this chapter but they will be back on CH10


	10. "Shaded Truths"

Now that Riku's powers were restored, him and Mikhail were protecting the airship from the mutated heartless while they set course for the Land of Forests. In the meantime, Zero kept herself busy by cleaning her sword and keeping an eye on Four. Eventually, Four thought her prolonged staring meant that she wanted to have a conversation with her, so she approached her older sister.

"Hello Zero! Or if I may call you older sister-"

"Don't ever call me that."

"Right, Zero it is. Um, well, since you're an Intoner too then I think you should also ask Riku to help fight your inner darkness. If there's one thing I learned is that being an Intoner is nothing but a curse, you deserve a shot at living a normal life too, you know?"

"Fuck off or this sword will end up in your flat chest."

"Yeah, sure! I just wanted to ...say that."

Zero let out a deep sigh. ' _That bitch gets an easy way out and wants to act like everything's perfect now, but I don't let anyone intervene with my own goddamn life.'_

Once the coast was clear, Riku returned to the airship and Mikhail flew next to them.

"Hey, wait a second dummy." Zero went over to the guardrail. "You look different."

"She's right, it's like you evolved...I didn't even notice it at first," Riku said.

"Wha- no way! What the heck?!"

Riku looked over to Zero. "Dragons can do that?"

She shrugged. "Don't ask me."

"Guess that means I'm like a grown-up now! Right? Riiiiight?"

"Wrooong. Now go take patrol."

"What? But I'm so tired! Can I rest up for a little bit? Please? Pretty please!"

"Go ahead, but just so you know, that knocked off a few adult points for you."

"Aw, no fair!"

"What? Being grown-up sucks."

Mikhail went to lie down on the airship's upper deck, leaving Riku and Zero alone.

"By the way, how'd you manage to fix your arm?" Zero asked.

"...Magic."

"That's some pretty strong magic then. You know, I'm starting to believe there's more to you than you're letting on."

His eyes went wide. "Uh...what makes you say that?"

Zero shook her head. "Usually I don't pay attention to your bullshit, but ...I can't get over that you suppressed Four's Intoner powers without killing her. Maybe the foreign country you're from has some weird magic I'm not aware of. Where'd you say you were from again?"

"Um...far away...on a small island. You wouldn't be able to find it on a map."

"Oh, so you're from some backwater island? That explains why you're so weird."

"At least I have an excuse." He muttered.

"You just love pissing me off, don't you?" She turned to leave.

"Can I ask you something before you go?"

She sighed. "What the fuck could you possibly want?"

"Do you remember when I asked you about the flower in your eye?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Why are you asking me this now?"

"Just curious I guess. So...how did the curse you have from the flower affect you?"

"Does this have anything to do with Four? Because I swear to god I will march over there and-"

"No- no, she doesn't have anything to do with it." He rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed. _'I really hate that I have to say this to her.'_ "I- um- just want to get to know you better. That's all."

"Oh. Next time just start off with that then, dumbass. When I got cursed that's how I became an Intoner. I got the power of song...and other stuff."

"How, uh, do you like being an Intoner?" He asked awkwardly.

"It sucks."

"Yeah, I bet." He said under his breath. "That's all I needed to know. Thanks."

"Whatever. Thanks for not making it awkward." She walked away from him. ' _Why was he asking those dumbass questions? Is he hiding something? Does he actually want to get to know me? No of course not. He's acting weird for some other reason. God knows what.'_

As the airship was approaching the Land of Forests, it seemed like it would be smooth sailing from there on out, little did they know, there was an ambush waiting for them.

"Well what do you know. Everything's not going to shit," Zero said.

***BOOOM***

* * *

Out of nowhere, they were attacked by heavy cannon fire which caused the ship to plummet down the sky. Although the airship crashed and burned, everyone was able to make it out in one piece, but the same couldn't be said for the soldiers who shot them down because Zero was determined to see to their ends.

"I'm gonna slice the shit out of every last one of you!" Zero screamed.

"I'll join you," Four said, tightening her combat bracers. "I detest The Land of Forests and now I'm stranded here thanks to those fiends."

"Just don't get in my way or I'll end up 'accidentally' stabbing you."

"Th-That's Lady Four of the mountains!" One of the soldiers gasped. "What's she doing here teaming up with that demon?!"

"I've had a change of heart." Four ran ahead, grabbed the head of a soldier, then slammed him on the ground. She kicked his body back up so she could use him as a meat shield and protect herself from the soldier's incoming sword strikes.

"Stop holding back men just because she's Lady Four! Anyone who stands against Lady Three must be destroyed!"

While the soldiers were focused on Four, Zero threw herself into the fray and slaughtered them left and right. The two sisters were an unlikely duo, but their combined forces were no match for any of the men. Four punched the last soldier in the gut, then threw him over to Zero who cut his head off.

"When they're both covered in blood like that you really see the family resemblance," Dito said.

"Those two are cut from the same cloth," Riku said.

Zero stomped forward, not even the blood of men was able to satiate her fuming anger from the loss of the airship. "Goddamnit! Everything could've been so fucking easy with that airship! I'm gonna kill all of these sons of bitches!"

"Cover all of your bases next time."

"How was I supposed to predict THAT? Fuck...now it's back to- hey, wait, where'd he go anyways?"

"He?" Decadus asked.

"Mikhail. She's not a big fan of using his name," Dito said.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm a jerk, mostly."

"At least you admit it," Riku said.

"This is why I don't say your name either."

"Ah, these lands bring back good memories, does it not Lady Four?" Decadus asked.

"Not at all. The Land of Forests is as filthy and dangerous as a place gets," Four said.

"I dunno. Seems pretty tame to me," Dito said.

"Far from it. There's all sorts of dangerous, non-human species crawling all over the place."

"Yeah, that's kind of racist."

"What- no it isn't! I'm not a racist or anything, I'm merely telling the truth."

"Heh, straight out of the racist playbook."

"Right. What happened to you being a good person?" Riku asked.

"So now I have to be nice to elves and ogres in order to be a good person?"

He sighed. "We still have a long way to go."

"Hey, you do know where we're going, right Z?" Dito asked

"What does it look like?"

"Not sure if I should answer that..."

"Three's shrine is that giant tree up ahead," Four said.

"And where is that?"

"I'm not sure, sorry. I've never had the misfortune to travel there by foot."

"Perfect. Just another reason why I'm gonna kill that bitch for what she did to my airship."

"Uh, I mean well technically it's still my airship..."

" _What_?"

"Nevermind!"

"And we're not killing Three either. As long as we can save her," Riku said.

"Fuck that's so boring."

Zero was leading the way, mowing down every soldier that dared cross her path. However, the further they ventured through the forest, the further they moved away from the light until their path was entrenched by darkness. That's when they were attacked by enemy soldiers that were unlike any soldier they encountered before.

Zero's face recoiled in disgust. "Ew...what the fuck is that?"

A platoon of soldiers came out from the shadows in droves, dragging their swords on the ground. With black masses of flesh ravaging their bodies like a parasite, there were few words to describe their grotesque appearance. It almost looked as if they were in the process of turning into a heartless, but the darkness stopped just short of claiming their hearts.

"—Get out of the way, Zero!" Riku charged in on the soldiers, he shot a Firaga Burst at the enemies, but they used their shields to block the attack outright.

' _Smart for a bunch of heartless. Or are they soldiers?'_ He spun his keyblade around in his hand before hitting them with a Dark Thundaga instead that did some damage, but it didn't stop them from marching ahead. ' _Feels good to have my magic back at least.'_

"̷̣̈́L̴̨̜̆͝a̸͚̾̈́͜d̷͚̐ÿ̸͍͍́͐ ̷͓̘̔T̸̬͉̎͝h̷̨̘̓ṛ̷̓͠e̷̔̆ͅë̴́͜͠.̴̱̠̓͝.̴͔̊̀ͅ.̵́́ͅL̷̬̗͑ä̷̻͓́̿d̸̩͆y̴͈͝ ̸̨̱͐T̶̳̅̈h̴̛̘ř̶̡ë̶͚̱́̾e̷̠̺̍.̴̨̠̎́.̷͓̉͜.̴͍̓̒"̶̱̻͆̐

̴̻͔̾̉"̵͙̮͘W̵̰̞̄̿h̷̝̔ě̸̼r̸͇͒͆ẹ̷̫̀́ ̶͉̗̍̿å̵̝͆ṟ̷̗͝e̶͔̝̐̆ ̶͙͈̋y̵͈͋͝o̴̧͂u̷͈͛.̸̟̇͊.̸̢̩̂.̸͈͉͒Ţ̴̝̀͘h̵̡̠͆r̴̥͙̔́e̷̲̍e̸̢͚͗?̸͖͋"̷̙̾̚

"Heartless are the gift that just keeps on fucking giving," Zero said.

"I don't know why they look like that...heartless and human at the same time," Riku said.

"I'm afraid this could be Three's doing," Four said.

Once the heartless soldiers had them surrounded at all sides with no chance of escape, they were forced to fight back. Zero and the others were doing their best to get some hits in on them, although Four mainly hid behind Decadus for the duration of the battle. At the same time, Riku was multi-rushing the heartless soldiers, utilizing every magic-infused move in his arsenal and taking full advantage of the near-limitless powers it granted him.

However, right when Riku was about to finish the soldiers off, they abruptly retreated back into the darkness.

"Perhaps they ran away," Decadus said.

"No, they're still here. In the shadows," Riku walked around the area for any traces of darkness he could pick up, but they were the ones who found him first.

"Y̵̟̖̖͕͛O̷̫͐́U̶̢͚̬͎̎̽̅ ̴͍̝̪̳̅W̵̢̹͇̯̹̽̾̐͝I̶͇͓͔̩͐̓͜͝L̴͎͙̂L̴̝̓͑́͆͌ ̵̟̣̃P̷̧̛̱͍̖̌̎̆́Ḁ̸̗̍̿Ỳ̴͔̣̟̤ ̴̲͚̟͖͕͌͋͘͝F̷̨̣̄ͅÕ̴̝̲͉̤̅̓̈́͠R̸͎͍̠̾͐͝ ̷͚͉͎͒͂͋̆Ỳ̷͉̹͋̽͠O̵̺̎̾U̴̗̫͗̀̀͠R̷̻͙̤̾͑ ̴̡̋̓͛͐C̵̠̮͈͔̤̏̀͂̍̕R̸͈͇͊͋̉͘Í̴̫͊́͝M̵̟͍̿Ȇ̷̢͙̫͑̏S̵͓̝̈ ̵̧̼̰̪̥̾̾Ȃ̸̻̟̎͋̓͌G̸̤̟͈̻̰̅͋̈́̃͆A̵͎͓̔Ḯ̷̼̲̹̕N̵̘͓̺̦̯͐̽̌S̷͍̰̃̊̏͊̽T̴̘̗̰̑͋̈̐ ̴̨͓̾͐͌̐L̶̡͓͈̼̿͜Ä̸̙̪́̋̑̑D̴̡̥̘̂͑̒̾͝Ÿ̵̩́ ̴̥̲̩̜̓͝T̸̜̽̅̈́Ḫ̸̡̨̬͛̉̈̏̕Ŕ̴̤͖̄͘͝E̵̪͐̉͊̿E̷͎̙͈̝̓͗̂!"

When he least expected it, the heartless soldiers rose from a black pool circling around him. One of them grabbed him from behind, then they all piled on top of him. He could hear muffled screams from the outside, but there was only one voice that was loud and clear.

**Let it consume you.**

"I'm not going out that easily." He held his keyblade close to his chest. "You're done."

Back bolts of lightning ripped through the sky and incinerated the pile of soldiers upon impact. It was a risky move that would've proved fatal if Riku didn't also cast a last-second Reflect spell on himself before the electricity could surge through him as well.

Fortunately, he emerged from the melted corpses with only a few black smudges on his face. ' _That was probably the last of my magic for now, but that's the least of my problems. I can't let that voice get in my head again.'_

"What formidable powers. Now I'm curious about the sorcerer who taught you such magical prowess," Decadus said.

"I'm self-taught."

"Oh, that's quite impressive for such a young man."

"It's not a big deal."

"Don't be so bashful, Riku. Men who can hold their own in battle is an attractive trait to women," Four said.

Zero shot daggers at Four who held her arms up in defense. "Wh-which I mean in the most platonic, non-romantic way possible of course!" She added.

"I- I can hold my own in battle as well Lady Four," Decadus said.

"Not now, Decadus."

"Hey, Four, you said something about Three earlier. Anything I need to know about her?" Riku asked.

"She's a freak and not in a good way," Zero said.

"She's not a freak, she's just a little out there. Unfortunately, she takes a liking to performing experiments on her soldiers...as you can see. Oh, if only I had been better a little sister for her, then she wouldn't have gone so far off on the deep end."

"...You can be a better little sister for me if you drop dead," Zero said.

She gave her a weak smile. "You have a great sense of ...humor, sister!"

"That wasn't a joke."

"So does Three...cut them up? And then poke and prod at them...nnnngh...how cruel...and punishing. If only I could be one of her test subjects," Decadus said.

"...I don't know all the details, but she turns men into beasts," Four said.

"Those soldiers were more than just beasts," Riku said.

From thereon, their encounters were just more and more heartless which was right up Riku's alley. He blazed a trail through the darkness for the others to follow until they were confronted by a formidable foe. A Rock Troll heartless emerged from a pit of darkness holding a cage of faeries in one hand and a battle axe in the other. To top it off, the Rock Troll bolstered a small unit of heartless soldiers they had also to contend with.

"What are those things?" Riku asked.

"-We're not things you incompetent fool! We're faeries! Whimsical faeries! And if you could hurry up and save us instead of standing around like clueless morons, we might be in the mood to part you with some wisdom!"

"Looks like we don't have a choice. Zero, stick with me and we'll fight the Rock Troll, the rest of you guys try to take on the soldiers."

"Gladly. I rather not lift a finger to save a bunch of flying pests anyways," Four said.

Zero pulled out a large, broad sword. "You sure have a fetish for saving people."

"A...fetish?"

"Heh, you're such a virgin."

They both jumped out of the way as the Rock Troll hammered its battle axe on the ground. The Rock Troll was a hulking, albeit sluggish heartless, it didn't know too many attacks, but the ones it did know were devastating. Just a few swings of its battle axe and it already chopped down a few of the encompassing trees. Riku and Zero could only get a few hits in at a time before they had to retreat from the falling trees.

Luckily, it worked out great for Four and the others since the trees ended up falling right on top of the heartless soldiers.

"Damn it! Can't you do anything?" Zero asked.

"I'm thinking of a way that won't kill the faeries."

"For fuck's sake..."

While Riku and Zero took cover behind a fallen tree, the Rock Troll stuck its axe in the ground, then swung around on it, hurling rocks in every direction.

"Think of something faster!"

"Alright, alright. Just be prepared to cover me."

"Fine."

As soon as they left behind the tree, Zero ran forward and cut through the rocks flying at Riku. Now that Riku had an opening, he shot an Aeroga spell at the Rock Troll. A forceful gust of wind swept the heartless off its feet, then Riku and Zero seized the opportunity to slash the hell out of the heartless until it was reduced down to a heart.

With the heartless defeated, Riku picked up the faerie cage from the ground. "You guys okay?"

"Barely! I thought for sure one of us would die from how sloppy that fight was! You should all be ashamed of yourselves!"

"So what's this wisdom you were supposed to tell us?" Zero asked.

"Hee hee hee! I can't believe you actually fell for that! We only said that as a joke, guess I can't be too surprised. You are all about as stupid as they come."

"Yeah, almost as stupid as that big dumb dragon stinking up the Valley of Faeries," Another chimed in.

"Where's that?" Riku asked

"Just up ahead, but I doubt you'll be able to find it since you guys are so-"

Zero opened the cage, then crushed all the faeries inside and wiped off their remains on her leg. "Any objections to that?"

"For once, no. At least we know where Mikhail is now, I was getting worried about him."

"Don't. Idiots like him never die young...then again, you're still alive."

He rolled his eyes. "...Whatever."

They went ahead into the Valley of Faeries in search of their missing friend. Like before, there was heartless to defeat and a confusing forest to navigate. This time around, they found themselves traveling through an undergrowth of tree roots where the sunlight barely passed through.

"I'm surprised we haven't been running into more of those vile demons," Decadus said.

"That's because the only vile demons here are those faeries," Four said.

Right on cue, a faerie buzzed around them like a fly. "—Bumm de-de dum dum! Well lookie here! Good morning you slow-witted, brainless buffoons!"

"You just had to open your mouth Four," Dito said.

"Well, how could I stay silent when I heard such nonsense from an ugly, grisly looking girl with an inferiority complex? Although, I suppose someone like you who couldn't bag an ogre if you tried would feel the need to put down others in order to feel slightly better about yourself."

"Listen here you-"

"Four, just ignore her. Be the bigger person," Riku said.

"You know, faeries aren't much of 'people' now are they? So I believe it's fair game."

"That's not how any of this works..."

"Awww, she's so helpless that she needs a big man to tell her what to do?" The faerie teased.

"No, that's not what I was-"

"You know I hate people like you. The noble, chivalrous type who thinks they can do no wrong when really you're just feeding girls a load of crap so you can get them to like you. What a sad, pathetic loser."

At that point, Four had enough of the faerie's slander and engaged with the creature against her better judgment. Little did the faerie know, Four was just as much of a pro at the insult game."Actually, you're the one who keeps stalking us so that makes you the loser here. It's like you faeries don't have anything else better to do with your short lives except make everyone else miserable. Why don't you just die already? Oh- sorry did that sound harsh? Good. It's not like your life is worth anything."

"Aw, do you actually think you're hurting my feelings? YOU'RE the ugly one who will never blah blah blah [literally who cares about what this faerie is saying]."

"God this is hilarious. The two people with the worst inferiority complexes out bitching each other," Dito said.

"Says the imp who's gonna grow up to be fat and ugly. You should kill yourself now to save the trouble," The faerie said.

"Alright. How about you fly a little closer so I can rip your little wings off and stuff them down your throat!"

"Now- now, Dito and Lady Four. You shouldn't worry yourselves with such frivolous matters. They're only trying to provoke you."

"You're right. There's nothing more frivolous than these winged rats," Four said.

"Great...this is bringing out the worst in you Four," Riku said.

"Riku...don't sound so disappointed in me. I-I'm still trying to be a good person."

"Saying you're a good person and trying to be one are two different things. These faeries are jackasses, but that doesn't mean you stoop down to their level."

"Easier said than done..."

"No one said it was going to be easy, but you still have to do it."

"Booooring. Are you two done squabbling yet? Now where was I?"

"About the fucking leave," Zero said.

"Oh so now the insecure whore has something to say? Guess what? You look like you got pimped out from a low-grade brothel, what does-" Zero killed the faerie before she could open her mouth up again.

"Well deserved," Four said.

Riku sighed. "Are we getting closer to Mikhail at least?"

"Yeah, I can smell his rotten stench from here."

"How can you tell? I think he kinda smells like you," Dito said.

"What the fuck are you trying to say?"

"I- I mean, 100 times worse than you. It's not even close. You smell great!"

"You were right the first time," Riku said.

"I'll kill you too like that faerie if you keep pushing it."

"Hey, I had to get you back for calling me an idiot earlier."

After a long trek, they finally found Mikhail who was trapped on the cave ceiling in a tangle of thick ivy. "Wahhhh! Zero! Riku! Help me! Help meee!"

"And now I have to free him too." Zero went around the cave and cut down every stalk of ivy that bounded Mikhail to the ceiling. Once he was free, he fell on the ground white a giant thud.

"You okay Mikhail?" Riku asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine now! I was really scared, I thought you'd guys would never come!"

"I'm starting to wish I didn't," Zero said. "How the hell do you get lost so damn often?"

"I dunno! It's not my fault!"

"Yeah, it is! Just do something useful for once and destroy that wall."

"No problem!" Mikhail bashed his head into the cave wall, creating an opening for them to pass through. "You shoulda seen it! I got all caught up in that ivy, it really hurt!"

"How come you didn't just use your fire or bite through the ivy?" Four asked.

"I was panicking, okay!"

"...This is the same dragon who tried to kill us at Cathedral City?"

"God, no," Zero said

"Hmph, I hope you're not mean too like your big sister, Four," Mikhail said.

"No, nothing of the sort. I'm a changed woman."

"Yep, Four the saint here who tells faeries to kill themselves," Dito said with a smirk.

"They totally deserved it though."

"Can't argue with you there."

"You're not helping Dito," Riku said.

"Ha, and that's the beauty of it."

As they walked out of the cave, they encountered more vile, demonic creatures...and heartless too. Riku broke off from the group to make quick work of the heartless while Zero and the others had to contend with the aforementioned faeries.

"Hee hee! I think we know the person you're looking for!" One of the faeries led on.

"Are you talking about Three?" Zero asked.

"Maaaaybe? Life is just full of chance encounters, you know? I try not to waste precious brainpower on the useless ones."

"Like you even possess..." Four stopped herself. "Nevermind, what information do you have on Three that we don't know of?"

"Her location, otherwise you wouldn't be bumbling around in the forest, now would you? Although, I don't really know where she is, I bet our king would."

Zero was quickly growing agitated. "Fine. So where's your king?"

"Oh, who can say? You know dear, nothing in life is certain after all. Although I AM certain you'll find him deeper in the forest."

"What wasted breath," Four said.

"Right? Way to contradict yourself there, dumbass," Dito said.

"I feel as though it's time to part ways since you have an awful track record of murdering faeries, Intoner. Farewell nobodies."

"Thank god."

Riku rejoined the group shortly after. "Hey. Done with those faeries?"

"Yep. Apparently, they have a fucking Faerie King so now we have to deal with that shit."

"I'll admit it, those faeries are getting on my last nerves. Hopefully, the king is the last we'll see of them."

"Huh? How come you guys don't wanna meet the Faerie King?" Mikhail asked.

"Was your brain turned off the last ten minutes? Those faeries are assholes and watch, their king's gonna be ten times worse."

"You think? Well, try not to kill him okay, Zero? Tell her Riku, you're supposed to be nice to things that are smaller than you, right?"

"I think that's above Zero's threshold for kindness."

She smirked. "You know me so well."

After Mikhail broke through a few more stone walls that blocked their path, they made it to the sacred shrine of the Great Faerie King. Zero approached him, already having visions of murder dancing in her head.

"Oh, why hellooo, and you're Lady Zero I take? Lady Three's inbred sister. I could tell from your hideous, deformed face."

Zero crossed her arms. "Can you save the shit talk and get to the point?"

"Oh ho ho? But where's the fun in that dear? Now, what have you worthless lot come to pester me about this time around?"

"Where's Three?"

"She's in the Forest Shrine."

"And where is that?"

"Oh ho ho ho! If I were to tell you THAT information, you'd kill me on the spot, wouldn't you? I've heard of all the nasty rumors from the other faeries about your murderous tendencies, so I won't be making THAT mistake."

She rolled her eye. ' _He basically just admitted to being an asshole then. Glad we're on the same page.'_ "I'm not gonna kill you."

"I find that hard to believe. Did you forget? I'm the Faerie King, no one is more wise or clever, or boundlessly intelligent than I! I see through your ruse, Intoner."

' _This idiot just said the same word three times. I'm not drunk enough to deal with this shit.'_ "I, uh, promise?"

"I find that VERY hard to believe."

"-Let me talk to him instead," Riku offered.

"Take it away. I was just about to kill him."

Riku walked up to Faerie King with his hands in his pockets. "Hey, tell us where Three's shrine is at and we'll be out of your way."

"And what do we have here? You're the pathetic, womanizing loser my faeries warned me about."

"Womanizer? That's a new one."

**You're going to accept that? You really are pathetic.**

**The old you would've killed him on the spot.**

"Not this again...get out of my head..."

"Oh? And you talk to yourself too? Seems you're a sandwich short of a picnic, boy. Oh ho ho ho, that was a good one! Oh ho ho ho-" He laughed his last 'oh ho ho ho' when Zero crushed him in her palms and turned him into fairy dust.

"Light's still on up there?" She asked.

"Yeah, it's nothing. I'm fine."

"—Waaaah! You killed him Zero! You killed him! Are you sure you shoulda done that?!" Mikhail yelled.

"Please, dragon. I say good riddance," Four said.

"But- but what about all the information we need to gather so we can-"

"Shut up. We can find it in another place. Let's keep walking," Zero said.

"Besides, even if Zero was merciful, I seriously doubt that thing would've told us much. Honestly, I'm just glad it's over with. Do you know how much I was refraining myself from speaking out against those fiends?" Four went on.

"Congrau-fucking-lations. Do you wanna nice shiny medal to stick up your ass too?"

She sighed. "...I'll be quiet."

Since it was late out, they decided to set up camp right outside the Valley of Faeries. By the time Riku returned with the firewood, Zero, Decadus and Dito were nowhere to be found at the designated campsite.

Riku dropped the pile on the ground, then lit it on fire. "Where did the others go?"

"You don't want to know," Four said.

"Oh...that."

They sat in silence for a while. Four stared at the campfire, listening to the fire cackle on the lumber and watching the embers fly out into the night sky. She turned to Riku who was polishing his keyblade, then nervously swallowed. "...You know, I have to admit. Being a good person is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I guess I just got so caught up in my own lie that I forgot what it meant to be a truly kind person."

He put his keyblade down, then looked up to Four, which made her even more nervous. "I was in your same position too a long time ago, but my friends helped me to get where I am today."

"Do you think um..." She hesitated, her heart was ready to pound out of her chest with how nervous she was and it made her so afraid to put her thoughts into words. But all she could do was let out a deep sigh and cast her worries away to the fire. "I...I know you told me before that you didn't want to be friends with me but...I was hoping you changed your mind about that. About being friends...so you could help me be kind as well. I-I understand if you say no, there's still a lot I have to-"

"Sure."

Her eyes went wide. "S- Seriously? After I embarrassed myself to you so many times?"

"Yeah, I'm not that much a jerk and I think... you're different now. You're not lying to me anymore."

She smiled at him. "...It's all thanks to you."

"-Oh! Oh! Can I be a friend too?" Mikhail asked.

Four nodded. "Why not? I mean, even though you're a dragon-"

Riku elbowed her.

"Wh-Which there's nothing wrong about that! You're still more tolerable than most humans I've come across."

"Ha- ha thanks! So what should we talk about now that we're all buddies? Oh yeah. How do you like your sister Four?"

"She hasn't left the best impression on me."

"What happened to you remembering how good of a sister she used to be?" Riku asked.

She shook her head. "Clearly I made it all up in my head. She hates me and that'll never change."

Just when they were enjoying their peaceful night together, Dito and Decadus were dragging themselves across the dirt towards the campsite.

"And here comes these buffoons," Four said.

"What happened to you guys?" Riku asked.

Dito pulled himself off the ground. "...Zero happened."

"E-every crevice of my body aches...oohhhh..." Decadus groaned.

"God... and I thought Five was rough. How the hell do you manage that every night without your dick falling off?" Dito asked.

"On the contrary, Riku has yet to have a night out with Lady Zero," Decadus said.

"How would you know that?"

"Why, Lady Four shared it with me."

"Are you kidding me, Four?!"

"My bad...I kind of bad-mouthed you back when I was trying to kill you and everything."

Dito burst out in laughter. "No way, you've gotta be shitting me! And now that raises more questions. So what is it, pretty boy? You don't swing that way or are you just not packing it big enough down there?"

"Oh hush Dito, I wouldn't be talking if I were you. Riku might just come over there and make you sorry," Four said.

"Oooh so scary."

"Keep pissing me off and you will be scared," Riku said.

"—Sounds like you guys are having fun." Zero stepped over Decadus, who was still pathetically lying on the ground, then she looked over to Riku. "Hey, what're we having tonight?"

"Haven't caught anything yet. I was getting firewood while you guys were doing...whatever."

"Damn it, if this keeps up we're all gonna have to start eating like my dumb dragon."

"What's wrong with eating maggots? You guys are missing out, I think they're super yummy," Mikhail said.

"Alright, then how about we all play a game to take our minds off starvation? I'm feelin' a game of 'fuck, fuck, kill' tonight! Who's with me?" Dito asked.

"What the hell is 'fuck, fuck, kill'?" Zero asked.

"Whatever it is, I'm not interested," Riku said.

"Everyone's heard of 'fuck, fuck, kill'-" He elbowed Decadus. "Right Dec, big guy?"

"I've never heard of a game with such a profane name."

"Damn you guys suck. Basically, it's a game where someone lists three people and you have to decide whether you want to fuck or kill each person."

"Actually Dito, I believe it's 'f*ck, _marry_ , kill'. My sisters and I used to play that game all the time when we were young," Four said.

His face scrunched up. "That sounds waayyyy more lame, but whatever. You guys in or what?"

Riku stood up. "Nope. Think I'll go catch some fish."

"I'll play. I got shit else to do," Zero said.

"Oh-oh! Can I play? Can I play?" Mikhail asked.

"No. This is an adult's game," Zero said.

"What but-"

"No but's and you better not eavesdrop either or I'll kick your ass. Just go back to sleep."

"I think I'll pass as well, but I don't mind watching you guys play," Four said.

"Whatever, 'course the prude wants out. That just leaves the three of us. Why don't you go first, Z?"

"Go ahead."

He smirked. "How about...me, Decadus and Riku?"

"I can't decide. You're all equally terrible."

"Sure. Still gotta pick someone though."

"How about I kill all of you?"

"You know that's not how this game works."

"Kill Decadus, then fuck you...and Riku."

"It would be my pleasure to die by your hands," Decadus said.

"This game is fuck, _marry_ , kill. Remember?"

"...I'm not marrying anyone."

He rolled his eyes. "So you can kill hundreds of people without batting an eye, but you're too chicken to say who you want to marry?"

"Because it's not real. I'm not stupid enough to fall for that made up fairytale shit about 'love' and 'marriage' or whatever."

Four gasped. "How can a sister of mine say such terrible things! Who hurt you?!"

"The bitch who put me in this miserable fucking world." She stood up. "I'm done playing."

Meanwhile, Riku was sitting by the riverside with a fishing rod in his hand, waiting for a bite. ' _A lot's happened today. Those half heartless half soldier guys make me wonder about what type of person Three is. If she's that far gone into the darkness, it might even be too late for her. Guess I shouldn't worry about now, I'll just enjoy this time I have to myself.'_

**I agree.**

"...of course. I told you to get out of my head."

**So be it.**

A shadowy figure manifested from across the river, sitting in his exact same position. When Riku walked closer to the river, so did it. And when he summoned his keyblade, so did it. "...What's going on?"

The figure had disappeared in the blink of an eye and appeared behind him somehow. Riku spun around, ready to attack, but when he saw who it was, he nearly dropped his keyblade. "No...not you again."

"Is that any way to speak to an old friend?"

Riku was so shocked because the person who stood in front of him was none other than himself. Or to be precise, a past version of him that no matter how far he tried to separate himself from, always ended up returning to him in his shadows.

"You look surprised, but you speak so much about your past, I thought it would be fitting to bring it back to you."

"Whatever plot you have to destroy the world isn't going to work. The darkness doesn't scare me!"

"Hm. You're right." It paced back and forth around him. "Maybe your heart's 'strong', but I will shatter your mind into pieces so thoroughly you won't even know who you are anymore. Little by little, I will bring you back closer to your former glory. That's a promise."

"Like I'm scared of your threats. Just give it up already, I've fought my darkness before, and I'll do it again!"

"You only fought your darkness because you were surrounded by the light of others. In this world...only darkness awaits you."

"—Who the hell are you talking to?"

"Huh?" Riku turned his head to see Zero walking up to him with a concerned look on her face. The figure had also seemingly sunk back in the shadows. If it was here at all. He couldn't decide if any of it was real or not.

He released his keyblade. "...What do you want Zero?"

"Wow. That's how you fucking greet me now?"

"I doubt you're here for a friendly chat. Let me guess, you don't want any fish tonight and you were gonna complain to me about it?"

"You got me."

"Well, I already set up some traps in the forest so you're welcome."

"I'm surprised you actually listen to all of my bitching."

"Hard not to. It's all you ever do."

"Careful. I'm already in a bad mood. Dito's game sucked and I was this close to wringing Four's neck. Don't know how the hell she's related to me..."

He shrugged. "He just wanted to stir up some trouble so I left."

"I should start doing that. At least the one saving grace is the food's not gonna taste like ass tonight."

"Just be warned I'm not much of a cook so don't complain about that either."

"You can leave that to me. I'm a pretty damn good cook."

"Wouldn't have guessed it. Years of practice?"

"It's more of a recent skill. An ... old friend of mine wouldn't eat anything I made for him unless it was up to his standards."

"Sounds like he was a picky eater."

"Like you wouldn't believe." She sat down on the patch of grass next to him. "So what're you gonna do when this is all over?"

"I'll keep looking for my best friend until I find him. Heh, I already know you probably wouldn't like him."

"Not if he's anything like you."

"It's more like he's the better parts of me."

"...So he has a nice ass?"

He glared at her.

"What? That was a compliment. You're welcome."

"So you staring at my butt is supposed to be a compliment?"

"Heh, it's not your dogshit personality. People like you who give up everything just to save one person are the bastards I hate the most."

"Why's that?"

"Because...they're the ones who die first."

_Throughout all of the pain and hardships,_

_The Intoner and the keyblade weilder found they shared the same hurt:_

_The loss of someone they held dear to their hearts._

**Flowers for the Dead**

Post Chapter Memes

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	11. "Where the Heart Goes"

"At long last, here we are again at Lady Three's shrine." Cent squeezed Two's hand. "Do you remember this place, my love, with your strange sister? We're so close, just hang in there."

The journey from the Land of Sands to the Land of Forests was a perilous one, but Cent believed it was worth it for Two's sake. He brought Two right up the castle doors, then gave it a few knocks. It took a while for the door to be opened by one of her heartless, but there Three stood before them. Her clothes were tattered and black and her hair had grown out so long that it fell to her feet.

"Ah- you look quite different, Lady Three. Let me guess, was it a haircut?" Cent asked.

Three didn't even crack a smile like she used to at his horrendously bad jokes. It was all business to her. "...What do you want?"

"I do believe the letter I sent detailed most of my grievances."

"I didn't read it."

"Ha ha, you never change Lady Three! Well, not to bore you with the details, but rumor's been spreading pre-tty far and wide about your powers to bring back dead people. I'm talking about necromancer levels here, and I was wondering if you'd be so kind as to bring a couple of dead children back to life? Doesn't have to be all of them, just enough so Lady Two's pleased."

She turned her head away from him. "...There's nothing I can do, sorry."

"What- why?"

"I work with corpses, not homunculus. Their bodies are long gone."

"Oh...I see. That's unfortunate we traveled all the way here, fighting off demons and what not, just to return empty handed."

"Such is life."

"Wait, so there's not anything else you can do to save your dear older sister? You remember what having one was like, don't you? She used to cook you hot meals and braid your hair...and do uh, other girl activities whenever she used to visit you."

"...Yeah."

"Yeah?"

"I remember...liking Two." Three gazed at her older sister's empty face, she had been in a catatonic state ever since the orphan incident. A part of Three buried deep inside that black chasm of a heart longed for the days when Two was still with her so maybe that's why she felt compelled to help. Or maybe she was simply looking for another doll to toy around with... "I can make her smile again," She finally said.

Cent was so relieved to hear those words from her. "Really? How so?"

"It won't be easy, but the demons will mend her fractured mind. However...time is not on our side."

"Don't worry. There's nothing going on back at home, we have all the time in the world."

"No...Zero and her dragon have arrived. The demons told me. And they also told me about a peculiar boy called the 'demon slayer' who travels with her. Bring him to me."

"Uh yeah, you see, I've never been the strongest guy around so how do you expect me to bring him to you exactly?"

"Deliver this message to him...he'll come to me."

"How can you be so sure?"

"There is always truth that lies hidden in the shadows."

"Riiight, but you will bring my dearly beloved back to me, won't you?"

Three grabbed onto Two's hand. "...Indeed."

* * *

"Ugh..." It was morning and as usual, Riku woke up before the others, although he couldn't sleep much at all last night anyways. ' _I need food. Maybe I can go catch a few fish before the others wake up.'_ And so back to the riverside he went where he cast his line out.

' _I feel like I'm getting crazier everyday I stay in this world. Wonder if this is how Sora felt like too?'_ He reeled in his line . ' _Nah. I'd still take post-apocalyptic machine warfare over whatever's going on here.'_

"—You eat, sleep and shit fish, you know that?"

"I'll take fish over starving. Besides you-" He paused, not because of a loss of words, but from the pure shock of what he was seeing. Zero stripped down right in front of him like he wasn't sitting there, then threw her clothes over to the wayside.

While Zero nonchalantly stepped inside the river to wash herself, Riku was mortified and had his hands pressed into his face. "Wh-What're you doing?!" He asked, barely able to get the words out.

"I'm taking a bath you moron. You're the one who kept on saying I smelled so you should be happy."

"You could've warned at first! What's wrong with you?!" Riku grasped for his fishing rod, still trying his best not to look at Zero, then scrambled away from her.

"...He's such a fucking virgin."

.

.

.

"Ugh..." ' _Thank god it was only a nightmare. Still, I can't believe I thought of Zero in that way.'_ Riku looked across the campsite to Zero who was knocked out on the ground. ' _That's so messed up.'_

He stood up to stretch his legs out, then gazed out to the river below. ' _And now I lost my appetite too.'_

When everyone else woke up, they continued their journey through the Land of Forests. Today's order of business included mobs upon mobs of heartless and if they were particularly unlucky, hybrid soldiers to reinforce their defense. If that wasn't enough, Riku was mentally withdrawn on top of it since he was still disturbed over his explicit dream, which the others eventually picked up on during their latest battle.

The five of them, with Mikhail flying above, were traveling between two overhanging cliff sides. Needless to say, no one was the least bit shocked when Bizzare Archer heartless manifested along the cliff, it was the perfect strategic area for them to release a barrage of arrows at them. Naturally, with one heartless type to terrorize them came others to do the same, multiple Graveyard heartless dug themselves out from the ground and lined up in a way to block their path.

The onslaught of arrows initially split the group up and Zero just so happened to run near Riku. "-Hey, fucking do something already."

"I know. I'm waiting for my magic to..." He lost his train of thought. ' _Why does she have to be all up in my face? I can't think anymore._ '

Her eye followed his eyes. "What're you staring at?"

He threw his hands up. "Nothing! Just avoid the Graveyard heartless until my magic builds up."

Zero left Riku to join the others who were working on destroying the Bizarre Archers, while he went for the Graveyard heartless since they would take a little more roughing up to defeat. Rushing in on the animate tombstones, he immediately deployed reflect to block their jack-o'-lantern surprise attacks, then slashed through all of the Graveyards at once. They were just as quick to counterattack, so he rolled back to avoid a knife in the stomach.

"Alright. Time to end this." Flipping his keyblade around, he cast Magnega to gather all the heartless together into one giant vortex, then coupled it with a Thundaga spell. Classic strategy that never failed any keyblade wielder. Once all the heartless were defeated, they grouped back together.

"Hey, keyblade, gonna keep walking behind me so you can stare at my ass?" Zero asked.

"What- no?! I would never do that!"

"Relax. I was just kidding. You're as straight as an arrow."

Dito snickered. "More like a broken arrow."

Riku knocked Dito upside the head.

"Ouch! That fuckin' hurt!"

"You had it coming," Four said.

"...Shut up."

"Hey, Four," Mikhail said.

"Hm?"

"Did you get along with your other sisters?"

"Um...let's just say I wasn't the favorite sister or anything."

"Probably because you're a stuck up virgin."

"That's not cool, Zero! You shouldn't be mean to your little sister!"

"Maybe she shouldn't have been a virgin." Zero turned to Four. "So what is it then, are you saving it or do you just stink down there? My guess is it's the latter."

"Not at all! I'm a strong believer in saving it until you find true love!" She locked arms with Riku. "Riku can back me up on this one!"

"Don't include me."

"Of course you two son of a bitches would bond over being virgins."

"It sounds to me like you're frustrated that Riku hasn't slept with yo-" She slapped her hands over her mouth. ' _I should've kept that to myself.'_

No one was the least bit shocked when Four received a black eye from Zero, Riku even preemptively cast Regen on her to speed up the healing process.

"You had it coming," Dito cheekily said.

"Ooooh- L-Lady Four, are you alright? That black eye looks so nnnghh... p-painful...it's so s-swollen."

"Shut up...both of you."

Their path soon diverged, one way led into a densely wooded area that was probably crawling with heartless, while the other way was marked by a signpost. "It says 'Elfheim'...whatever the hell that is," Zero read out loud.

"I believe Elfheim is an elf village. Just going based off the name," Decadus said.

"Then we'll go this way. It's about time I restock on supplies."

Four stuck her tongue out. "Just my luck. A whole village of Elves."

"What's wrong with Elves?" Mikhail asked.

"What's right with them? Honestly..."

"Four..." Riku said.

"I don't think I'm alone when I say they're menaces to society. Just wait, you'll see."

"Hey, dragon, fly around the village and keep patrol. You can handle that, can't you?" Zero asked.

"You bet! I'm gonna do the best patrol yet and swoop in if you guys need to run away real fast, okay?" He flew ahead of them towards Elfheim while they continued the rest of the way on foot.

As they got closer to Elfheim, Four spotted something on the ground that caught her attention. "What's this-" She picked up a piece of paper, then gasped. "Oh my goodness!"

"Is something the matter, my lady?" Decadus asked.

"Yes!" She waved the piece of paper in front of them, which happened to be a crudely drawn wanted poster of her that read 'Wanted! Dead or Dead: The Evil Mountain Intoner'. "Ugh- those pointy-eared bastards! How dare they desecrate my image!"

Dito snickered. "I dunno Four, they really captured your essence there, pointy teeth and all."

She crumpled the paper up then threw it at his head. "Oh shut up."

"Get over yourself. You know how many wanted posters I had back in the day? But you didn't see me throwing a bitch fit over it," Zero said.

"I get Zero- well actually both of you guys are pretty questionable, but why would you have a wanted poster, Four?" Riku asked.

"I might have done some bad things in the past, but they were evil air pirates so it's not like- it's not-" She shook her head. "Actually, I rather not talk about it. I'll just keep my identity hidden and still my tongue until this nightmare is over with."

Four put her hood over her face, which she figured would be enough to fool them. "You can just call me Rydia!"

"Er...Rydia?" Decadus asked.

"From my favorite epic romance series! Something an oaf like you clearly knows nothing of."

"Wh...what agonizing words."

However, when they tried to enter Elfheim, two Elf soldiers blocked the entrance with spears. "Halt! You're the Intoner Zero, aren't you? We don't take too kindly to you witches, all you do is plunder and destroy like savages!"

Riku stepped in between Zero and the soldiers before things could get ugly. "We're not here to cause any trouble, we're just passing through. And from the looks of it, you can't use all the help you can get."

"Unfortunately, that is the case. Three's demons have terrorized our village for days on end. We're likely the last Elf stronghold left standing in the Land of Forests."

 _'They say that like it's a bad thing.'_ Four thought.

"Don't worry. We're here to take Three down and I'll defeat whatever darkness comes into this village."

Zero rolled her eye. ' _He's so annoying.'_

"I see, we haven't come across a brave human like yourself in a while. You're all free into our village, although you must excuse its desolate appearance."

Elfheim was unlike any place they'd ever traveled through before. It was a sprawling village packed to the brim with shops, restaurants, and cottages. Usually, Elfheim was a lively place, the streets would be filled with Elves walking about and their doors were always open for visitors, but due to the heartless, the village was about as depressing as a place could get. Many of the shops were boarded up and there was a large presence of Elf soldiers patrolling the area.

' _Hope there's a tavern around here.'_ Zero faced the others. "I don't care what you guys do. Just meet back in an hour, then we'll leave." She walked away.

"Cool, so we get to fuck around for an hour," Dito said.

"How do you propose we'll spend our time?" Decadus asked.

He shrugged. "There's probably a few shops we can poke around in. Maybe we can find some weird shit too."

"Will you be accompanying us, Lady Four?"

"I suppose I have no other choice to feign boredom in this horrid village. Oh- Riku, you're free to join us as well."

"Thanks, but I think I'll pass. I want to look around for heartless just in case any show up."

She smiled. "Always the heroic one, aren't you? I'll see you around then."

"Later."

Riku strolled around the village, checking for obvious spots that would draw darkness near like in alleyways or under bridges and he was able to defeat a few stragglers before they could wreak havoc. ' _Sucks that the heartless always have to target innocent people like this, we need to take Three down as soon as possible.'_

During his patrol, Riku walked past a tavern that was still open despite the looming threat of heartless. ' _Smells like there's food in there and I'm starving since I skipped out on breakfast. I don't think it'll hurt if I stop for a quick bite.'_ He went inside and sure enough, there were dozens of hardy Elves drinking their problems away. What he wasn't expecting was for Zero to also be at the bar, drowning herself in gallons of beer.

' _Great, she's here too. Hopefully, she won't notice me, I don't want her to bother me.'_ Riku thought he avoided detection when he went over to the far end of the tavern, but the moment he took a seat, Zero stood over his table.

"You avoiding me now?" She sat down across from him, then waved for the servant girl.

"Why hello, what'll you two be having this fine day?"

Zero raised two fingers. "Two pounds of boar meat and beer."

"Uh- I'll also have boar meat too," Riku said.

"Coming right up. And try not to stay too long, 'kay? The monsters'll come eat you right up if you're not careful." Parting them with those foreboding words, she disappeared into the kitchen.

"You're paying by the way and for all the other beers too."

"Whatever. Surprised you're not drunk already."

"I've been drinking since I was a kid. I don't get wasted easily."

"That's...messed up."

She shrugged. "Welcome to my life. Still don't get how you used to be a shitty kid, but you don't drink or have sex."

"I think that's just you. We have different priorities."

"Clearly." Zero propped her arm on the table, growing bored as they waited on their meal since Riku wasn't much of a talker. It just so happened that the way she positioned herself gave Riku a perfect view of her chest. He was trying his damndest not to stare, but it was like something in his brain got rewired and he couldn't help himself anymore. His only saving grace was that Zero didn't notice, but she absolutely did. _'First he wants to get to know me, and now he keeps staring at me. Does he actually want to-'_

_*CRAAAAASH_

The entire tavern wall burst open and a horde of hybrid soldiers marched inside.

"You can't be fucking serious? We didn't even get our food yet," Zero said.

"That's what you're worried about?"

Riku shot up from the table, fighting off the soldiers before they could kill anyone. He then went outside and saw there was an entire army of soldiers storming the village and slaughtering every Elf they could find.

In the meantime, Four and the others were at the far ends of the village where the army of darkness had yet to reach them. They were checking out a shady item shop that was in the business of selling Elven oddities. Although Four was far from fascinated by the human skulls and glass eyes, she kept to the back of the store where she stared at the collection of wanted posters in her name.

"Lady Four, can you believe all the t-torture devices they have stocked? Perhaps I should acquire one for my own leisure...oooohhhHH."

"Leave me, Decadus."

_'These posters are all over this village just because I killed a few evil air pirates. It's not like I was killing civilians, they were evil so it was fine to-'_

"-You seem quite interested in those wanted posters, lass."

Four turned around to meet face to face with a young Elf carrying a crate full of supplies. "What do you-" She paused. Although he was an Elf, he fit all of Four's standards which was basically just being a generic-looking pretty boy. ' _For a lowly Elf, he has such a handsome face! Wow, I can't believe he's talking to me- I mean, I CAN'T BELIEVE this FILTH is talking to ME.'_

"Hm, now that I take a closer look at you, you do look very similar to that damned Intoner."

"I- I get that a lot!" She spit out. "My name is Rydia...there's no relation between her and I."

"I see, well then that's a relief. Otherwise, I would've had to kill you on the spot- ha ha ha!"

Four swallowed hard. "Ha..ha...ha."

"—That's enough Cecil, don't be rude to our customers," The shopkeeper said. "Please, you must excuse my grandson. He lost his father due to the attacks dealt by the Intoner of the Mountains. It was devastating for all us... so many of our families got torn apart because of her cowardly actions."

"You have my condolences," Decadus said

"I'm with you there, man. Someone's gotta be pretty fucked in the head to do that," Dito said.

Four glared at him.

"I agree. It was manslaughter what that Intoner did to our people, but I suppose you lot are decent." Cecil flashed a smile to Four as he walked past her. "I do hope you find something you like lass."

Four let out a sigh. ' _I feel so low right now. It's not like I was thinking about whether they had families or not, they were just evil air pirates to me, nothing more. But I guess that's not much of an excuse either.'_

All of a sudden, they heard blood-curdling screams rupture from the outside.

"Um...what was that?!" Four asked.

"Sounds like trouble! Grandpa, get the crossbows, we're not going down without a fight!"

"This is bad..." Not sure what she could do, Four pressed her back against the wall of wanted posters in fear. Suddenly, the hands of a hybrid soldier bust out from the wall and snatched her from behind. The attack was surprising, to say the least, and Four was screaming bloody murder as she tried to break herself free from its grasp, but the worst of it had far yet to come.

Before Decadus could reach her, Cecil was the one to pull her away from the soldier.

"Th-Thank you..." She muttered.

"I would save your thanks for me, Intoner."

Her eyes widened. ' _He already knows. Of course, how could I be so foolish.'_ The shopkeeper also held a crossbow aimed at her direction. ' _They both know.'_

Cecil punched Four in the gut so hard that she was coughing out globs of blood and was on the verge of throwing up. Before she even got a chance to gasp for breath, he forced her against the wall then took out a jagged dagger and held it to her neck. "If any one of you humans decides to involve themselves, I'll slice her fucking head off, got it?!"

"N-No! Please, allow me to trade my life in place of Lady Four's!" Decadus pleaded.

"I'm not the type who kills people senselessly like your Intoner friend here."

"Welp, nice knowing ya Four," Dito said.

During an already life or death situation, several hybrid soldiers barged into the shop.

"Damn it, not a good time for the cavalry to arrive." Cecil pressed the blade deeper into her neck until it drew blood. "I suppose I'll have to make this quick."

In a stroke of luck on Four's behalf, the hybrid soldiers attacked Cecil and threw him down to the ground.

"Let's escape now, Lady Four!" Decadus yelled.

So many thoughts rushed through Four's head, but the loudest one was screaming at her to do one good thing in her life. "...We're not going anywhere." Casting away the fears that held her back, Four rushed to the safety of the Elves. She pounced on the soldier that was about to stab Cecil, then twisted its neck around. Right after, she picked up its sword, then slashed through a group of the bastards all at once.

"You should leave this village now," Four said, helping Cecil off the ground.

He pushed her off of him. "Damned Intoner...you think saving my life changes the fact that you killed so many?! I'll never forgive you for what you did!"

"I didn't save you to ask for your forgiveness, only that it was the right thing to do." Four quickly left the shop with the disciples before Cecil could try his hand at killing her again, then they made their way to the center of the village where the rest of hybrid soldiers were.

"That was a fine act of bravery, Lady Four," Decadus said.

She shook her head. "Only because it followed years of cowardice. Besides, the work is far from over. Let's go help Riku and Zero take down the rest of those soldiers!"

At the same time, Riku and Zero were finishing off the last of the soldiers when a large, shadowy figure appeared at the entrance of Elfheim.

"Fuck, this can't get any worse," Zero said.

However, their situation got substantially worse because the enemy that was dragged into Elfheim was their age-old nemesis; the Cerberus. The three-headed demon was wrapped in heavy chains all around its body that the hybrid soldiers held onto like a leash.

Zero let out a sharp sigh. "...They're doing this on purpose."

"A rematch huh?" Riku gripped his keyblade. "I won't fail this time."

The soldiers released their grasp on the chains and the Cerberus bolted forward, bulldozing past the houses that lied in its path. Riku and Zero jumped out of the way before they could end up getting crushed under its paws, then Riku started off his attack strong with a devastating Meteor spell. A giant, flaming meteor came crashing down from the sky, splitting the heavens apart, then it pummeled into the Cerberus.

In comparison, Zero's follow up attack wasn't nearly as flashy, but you couldn't go wrong with slashing a couple of heads off if it got the job done.

By the time Four and the other disciples joined the battle, it was practically over, the poor demon dog was already on its last legs and all Riku had to do was finish it off with a couple of keyblade swings. Simple. And yet, when he looked into the Cerberus' eyes, vividly remembering all the pain it caused him, something weakened inside Riku that allowed the Flower to worm its way into the cracks of his heart. All he could see was red as he repeatedly hacked his keyblade at the demon.

This Cerberus in particular was also rare in that it wasn't a creature of darkness unlike so many others of its breed, so with every swipe of the keyblade, blood splattered onto Riku from head to toe.

Four put her hands over her mouth. "Oh my god...Riku."

"Heh, looks like he can join the fucked up club with the rest of us," Dito said.

Seeing Riku give into his violent tendencies was so grotesque precisely because it was Riku of all people. Zero was especially distraught because to her, watching a guy she thought was a genuinely decent person lose his goddamn mind was like watching a nun get railed in a back alley. It angered her enough to march over to him and land a solid punch right in his jaw.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" She screamed.

While the punch stung because Zero put everything she had into it, nothing hurt Riku more than knowing Zero was using anger to mask the sadness in her voice. He was so disappointed in himself that he could hardly look Zero in the eye. "I'm sorry I...I don't know what came over me." He used Water to wash the blood off his clothes, then released his keyblade.

"...Whatever, let's just get out of this shitty village."

' _I really messed up. What happened back there? That must've been the flower messing with my head again.'_

**Your anger reveals your truth, Riku.**

**I only listened to your inner desires.**

' _That's not true. It keeps on trying to get to me, I can't let that happen anymore.'_

"—Oh ho ho ho! Where do all of you think you're going? The toughest challenge has yet to come!" An old, short statured man landed down right in front of them. "My name is Octa! I am the disciple of Lady Three, mistress of the wood."

"What the hell is it this time," Zero said.

"Ugh...what're you even doing here Octa?" Four asked.

"Why hello to you too, Lady Four! Ho ho ho...it's funny that you ask why I'm here-" He raised his chakrams in the air. "If only you knew the surprise I've GOT in STORE for YOU!"

"Bring it on!"

He dropped his chakrams on the ground. "...I surrender."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...You what?"

"I surrender. I followed you all here because I wanted to join your cause."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Zero slowly lowered her sword which was inches away from his head. "Uh...sure whatever."

Four let out a huff. "Don't we have enough perverts traveling with us?"

"Nnnnghhh...you won't even refer to me by name."

"At least he can actually lead us to Three's shrine so we're not fucking around this forest all day," Zero said.

"Yes, certainly, however my services aren't limited to navigating these woods. I know my way around in bed as well~" Octa said.

"It's getting dark so I'll find out about your performance soon enough, or lack thereof."

"On the contrary dear, my one-eyed snake has yet to disappoint a single lady who bears witness to it. The question is if you can handle it in all of its girth."

"Uh-huh...we'll see about that, Gramps."

Dito's face scrunched up. "God I hope there's no threesomes tonight. Last thing I wanna see is Octa's shriveled up 'snake'."

"The last thing I want is to have a mental image of _that_ in my head," Four said.

"Could've gone the rest of my life without hearing that," Riku said.

"Why I- I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear such slander to my precious little Octa!"

"Now we just have to find wherever the hell my dragon went- damn it, I told him to fly above the village." Zero cupped her hands over her mouth. "Hey...HEY IDIOT!"

"Perhaps your winged companion would respond better if you used his name," Octa said.

Zero glared at him.

"Er- forget I said anything, Lady Zero!"

Zero shouted a few more 'HEY IDIOTS' loud enough for the whole forest to hear and fortunately, Mikhail's silhouetted appeared above them. Unfortunately, he was covered from horn to tail in mud that pissed Zero right the fuck off. "H-Heyyy Zero! I know this looks super bad but promise you won't get mad at me, okay?"

"...Okay. I'm not...mad."

"Whoa, really? That's a relief." Mikhail made the mistake of trusting Zero and the moment he touched down on the village grounds, Zero pulled her sword out.

"YOU DUMBASS! I'm going to stab the FUCK out of you!"

"Wahhhh! No Zero! I'm sorry- I'm sorry! Don't stab me, please!"

"God- you're lucky you smell like a walking pile of shit. I don't even wanna get anywhere near you." She whipped her head back to Four. "You. You're going to wash him in the river tonight, got it?"

"Wha- why me?"

"Are you fucking back talking to me?!"

"N-No of course no, but as much as I would love to clean your dragon, I feel like Decadus would want to even more and I don't want to take that away from him!"

"I don't care who does it, as long as he's not smelling like a crapper by tomorrow."

"Oooooh, I- I would want nothing more than to be subjected to Mikhail's terrible stench all night. You Intoners are truly d-devious."

"Jesus, you sure a trooper, Dec," Dito said.

That night, they set up camp a little ways off of Elfheim by the river so Decadus could get to work on scrubbing Mikhail clean. Four decided to fall asleep earlier than usual because there was already so much on her mind, while Zero and the other disciples were once again nowhere to be seen at the campsite. Usually Riku would've appreciated quiet times like now when he was alone, but there was no peace of mind to be had because the Flower was relentless in his thoughts.

If it wasn't feeding on his anger, it was feeding on his sexual desires and he couldn't decide which was worse anymore. ' _I need to do something or I'm gonna go crazy thinking about this stuff.'_ Riku left the campsite to go take a walk around in the forest. ' _Mikhail means well, but all the fish just got an early death sentence since he's getting washed up in the river. I guess I could go hunting for some critters instead.'_

Riku snooped around the forest to find any branches he could make a snare out of. Even though it was dark out, his eyes were used to the darkness so he made his way around pretty easily. The same couldn't be said for Zero who ended up bumping into him by accident.

"Shit, my bad," Zero said.

"Zero, what're you-" He immediately went into flustered mode when he realized that Zero was stark naked. What embarrassed him even more was that his dream body of her wasn't too far off from reality. "W-wait, what happened to your clothes?!"

"Oh that? I just got done having the most mediocre sex of my life. Fucking Octa broke his back in the middle of it...so why the hell are you here?"

"I was going to uh..." He was thankful it was dark out so Zero couldn't see how red in the face he was turning, but she had her suspicions. "Just you know, go hunting for...food...and stuff..."

Zero stared at him for the longest time until the pieces started to fall in place. ' _Wait-wait-wait! I think he actually wants to do it?! That's why he's been staring at me all day and talking like an idiot. Fucking FINALLY! I'm going for it before he runs away.'_ She stepped closer to him, then put her hands on his shoulders and gently lowered him to the ground.

As soon as Riku let her touch him, she took it as him not wanting her to stop. So she went ahead, slipping off his jacket and shirt, then she pushed him onto his back. After that, she positioned herself over him, her breasts pressing against his chest and her face above his. Her breathing was getting shorter and shorter because she was getting so aroused just being on top of his body.

"Zero..."

**You're thinking about how much you want to **** Zero, aren't you?**

**So why are you holding yourself back?**

Normally, Riku would've never let Zero go so far with him, but he was internally freaking out to the point where he had no idea what was going on. The Flower's constant remarks weren't helping in that regard and it _especially_ didn't help when Zero sat down on his crotch and made his virgin mind go into overdrive.

"I...I want it rough." She was panting now. "...make me cry. "

Despite everything, Riku was still Riku and there was no way he could commit to such acts against Zero. He threw his jacket over her, then stood up and put his shirt back on. "Look...I know I haven't been acting like myself lately and I'm sorry, but don't ever ask me to hurt you like that again." With that, he walked away, leaving his jacket with her.

"..."

"—Oh ho, but I'm always available for round two Lady Zero!" Octa boasted, crawling out from behind the bushes.

"Get the fuck out of my face."

His shoulders sunk. "Yes...as you wish."

When Zero was finally alone, she fell to the ground, clinging onto his jacket. "What the fuck is wrong with me..."

_The further they ventured into the Land of Forests,_

_The more of a grasp the Flower held on the keyblade weilder's heart._

_Sorry- not to break character, but if this keeps us, it'll have catastrophic consequences._

_I believe now is as best time as any to pay Riku a long-overdue visit..._

**Flowers for the Dead**

****

****

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Re-read the chapter in the high pitched Elf voice and it's 10x funnier XD


	12. "Does My Voice Reach You?"

After his disastrous encounter with Zero, Riku became very distraught with himself. He somehow ended up at the river after mindlessly wandering around the forest and stared at his reflection in the murky water. ' _I can't believe I actually let her get that far with me and then that outburst I had earlier too. Why is this flower having so much of an influence over me? Didn't I already overcome the darkness?!'_

His reflection itself walked out of the water, taking him by surprise at first until he realized it was another manifestation of the Flower. "Your heart certainly harbors a resistance towards the darkness. However, a hunter doesn't wait for its prey to learn its own tricks. For as much as you guard your heart, you leave your mind wide open."

"Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about!"

"Oh?" The reflection cycled between the different adversaries of his past, from the many incarnations of Xehanort all the way back to Maleficent. "The virtue of residing in your heart means that I know everything about you and how exactly I can play you into my hand."

"You're wrong! All you do is just put things in my head that were never there to begin with!"

"Is that so? Then perhaps it would be easier to drown out my voice if you had Sora with you since you obviously can't fight me on your own." The reflection turned into Sora and Riku lost it. He slashed through the reflection with his keyblade, then punched the ground as hard as he could out of sheer frustration. "DAMN IT!" He kept on punching the ground over and over until his knuckles were wet with blood, then he finally started to calm down. "Why... can't I do anything..."

"—You seem a little down in the dumps."

' _What is it this time?'_ Riku sighed then turned around, surprised to find it was Accord of all people. "Oh...it's you. It's been a while."

"Yes it has." She bowed to him. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person. I apologize that I took longer than expected to arrive back in this world, some complications happened along the way."

"Like what?"

She waved it off. "It's nothing you need to worry about for now. So about this flower problem you have, all cards on the table, I knew this would inevitably happen to you."

"You did? How come you didn't try to stop it?!"

"As much as I wanted to, that's not my role to play. You could say it would sort of be like cheating on my end, but I'm always happy to share advice with you."

' _I wonder what she means by that cheating thing? Guess I shouldn't dwell on it.'_ "What should I do about the Flower then? Like, how am I supposed to get rid of this thing?"

"Sounds to me like you're not confident in your own abilities."

He lowered his head. "...I feel like I'm losing myself and I don't know...maybe it's right. Maybe I could only fight the darkness before because I had my friends with me."

"You have a bad habit of only looking at the downsides, I don't blame you though. It's hard to see the world as it is when you're right in the middle of it, but coming from an outsider's perspective, you've changed it considerably."

She walked around him. "The way this world works isn't the same now that you've arrived. People are changing and remembering the kindness you've parted with them in a world where I thought no such kindness existed. It's fascinating."

"Oh...I didn't even think of that."

"Of course, you have more power than you know and I suggest you learn to use it well because this path you're currently taking, as admirable as it is, will only end in your death.

"Sorry- what?!"

"I apologize, I must've dropped a bomb on you there. Perhaps I may be jumping the gun, your presence in this world creates a future that even I can't fully predict so I suppose I could be wrong about your fate."

"That's good, I think? Wait, so...if you can predict the future like some kind of fortune teller, then what exactly is your goal here?"

"Hm? I'm a Recorder, as I've already told you before."

"I know that, I'm just saying if you're so invested in the future of this world, shouldn't you be doing everything in your power to stop the Flower?"

Accord went quiet for a moment. "You...wouldn't understand, but I will think about what you said. If you want more guidance in regards to the Flower, then no one knows more about that subject than Zero." She picked up her suitcase, disappearing behind a tree.

' _Yeah, she's never encouraging. So even if I do everything right, I'm still gonna get screwed over in the end? No, I shouldn't look at it that way. She says I have the power to change my fate and I've always been able to beat whatever Xehanort and his goons threw my way so I can overcome this too.'_ He let out a sigh. ' _But first I need to deal with Zero before I overcome anything.'_

* * *

Riku wasn't the only one who had a restless night, Zero was in the same boat, though she didn't try to make an effort to sleep. She knew herself pretty damn well so if it wasn't going to be fucked up, traumatic shit from her childhood, it was going to be weird horny dreams about Riku, both of which would make her feel shitty.

Instead of letting her subconscious drive herself crazy, Zero went down to the river while the moon still hung over the night sky to clear her head. ' _Damn, I can't stop thinking about it, it's hard to believe I almost fucked him last night, but of course he had to chicken out. Or maybe he was just coming to his senses.'_ Grabbing the nearest stone she could, she flung across the water and it sunk through. ' _No, that's not it. He just freaked out on me because he's a virgin, right?'_

For the rest of the night, up until when the sun rose over the horizon, Zero skipped stones across the water. She couldn't remember the last time she was pathetic enough to watch the sunrise, but there she was because hitting new lows was practically her talent. Still not wanting to return to the campsite and potentially have to talk to Riku, she leaned her head back against the rock she was resting on. "Let's see. How did that one song go? I think it was like... _once there were trees full of birds, meadowlands vibrant with flowers_ -"

"—Your singing isn't half bad."

She turned to see Riku walking up to her. "Being a part of the church's choir was gonna be my fall back plan if the prostitution thing didn't work out."

He raised an eyebrow. "You serious?"

"No, you moron. So what the hell do you want? Hopefully you're here to tell me that last night was just your sick way of edging me."

"I wanted my jacket back."

She smirked. "Too bad, I already used it to wipe my ass."

"You're not funny."

"You really need to learn how to take a joke. I left your jacket on my dragon."

"Just start off with that next time...and about what happened last night, let's forget about it, okay? It's not worth getting upset over."

"Whatever..." Zero's was biting her lip as if she wanted to say more.

"What is it?"

"It's nothing."

"Just say it."

Zero was starting to look embarrassed. "Okay, fine. I was wondering if um...you were into it? It seemed like you were before you chickened out."

"What do you mean was I 'into it'?"

She started tapping her foot on the ground, a clear indicator that she was growing frustrated on top of already being uncomfortable. "I mean...did you, you know, _like it_?"

"Uh...n-no, of course not!"

"...Oh." As crushing as it was for Zero to hear that, instead of letting it get to her, she turned it right back around on Riku. "Well in that case, fuck you! You don't get to stare at my tits for free, pervert!"

"You're the one to who forced yourself on me! Guess you're not used to guys saying no to you."

"Oh hell no, are you trying to call me a slut?!"

"What, no? That's not what I meant!"

"Forget it. You're a fucking waste of time." She pushed him out of the way, then stormed back to the camp.

' _Great. Why are girls always like this?'_ Riku mentally prepared himself for the awkwardness that was about to ensue before returning to the campsite. Just as he dreaded, the tension between him and Zero was so thick, a knife could cut through it.

"Uh...did something happen between you two that we should know about?" Dito asked.

"It's none of your business. Now start packing your shit up, we have places to go."

Octa leaned over to Dito and whispered, "I did see Riku out with Lady Zero last night, perhaps they finished sweeping the chimney in the wee hours of the morning."

"Tch, not with that pissed off look on her face."

"Octa, where are we going?" Zero asked.

"The shrine lies beyond the Forest of Fog!"

"Sure it's not a trap ol' bug eyes is leading us into?" Dito asked.

"I'm in a shitty forest surrounded by a bunch of assholes. What's one more?"

Dito stepped away from her. ' _Oh yeah she definitely didn't get any dick from him.'_

Without further delay, they faced the dangers of the forests yet again. It was becoming routine to start their enemy encounter with a gang of heartless and today was no different. Powerwild heartless swung around the trees while an undead army of Wight Knight heartless were swarming around them.

"It'll be advantageous if we work together," Four said.

"That asshole can handle them on his own. It's the only thing he's decent at," Zero said.

"The only thing you're decent at is complaining."

"You wanna go? 'Cause I'll cut your dick off right here! Not like you ever use it."

"It's not my fault all you ever do is sleep around!"

"Keep calling me a slut and see what happens!"

"Hey guys, maybe now's not the best time to argue since we're under attack and everything," Four said.

Riku raised his keyblade in the air, then seconds later, black lightning thundered from the skies and destroyed all of them at once.

"That...works too."

"No more fighting, okay? You guys shouldn't be a bunch of douchebags to each other," Mikhail said.

"Wha- Mikhail?! Where'd you even get that from?!" Riku asked.

"Oh, douchebag? Dito taught it to me! He says it's the same thing as saying 'meanie', you should try it out sometime!"

Both Riku and Zero turned back to give Dito the most intense death stare he ever received before in his life.

"Hey- hey, relax you two! Mikhail's a big boy and he could use the expanded vocabulary. Don't think 'meanie-pants' is gonna cut it anymore."

"He's still a kid. He doesn't need to be talking like that," Zero said.

"Aw, look at you getting all motherly on me. It's almost cute."

"You're one wrong word away from me kicking your ass."

"Alright, noted."

"Mmm... there's nothing more unbearable than a b- beating from Zero," Decadus moaned.

"By the way, Decadus, I forgot to thank you for giving me a bath last night! It was really fun and now Zero can't say I stink anymore," Mikhail said.

"It was my pleasure, Mikhail."

"Watch him go back to smelling like shit in a couple of hours," Dito said.

"Hey! That's mean! I'm gonna try my best not to stink this time around!"

"Whatever you say, dirt for brains."

"Better than the dirt that comes out of your mouth," Riku said.

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, says the guy that talks like a nerd."

"Watch it."

"Honestly Dito, with your foul attitude you should be thankful that you haven't become heartless fodder already," Four said.

"Uh, you're the one who almost became one. Besides, I wouldn't mind turning into a sick demon as a bonus once it's my time to go."

Octa caressed his beard. "Hmm...so I gather those black demons are what you call the 'heartless'? Indulge me for a moment, Riku."

"Yeah?"

"Lady Three has become well, to put in rather bluntly, obsessed with those creatures. Do you believe it's possible she'll turn into one herself?"

"Aaaand here comes the nerd talk," Dito said.

"If we don't stop her, then it'll only be a matter of time before her heart succumbs to the darkness."

"That's rather frightening. Oh, I do hope such fate doesn't befall onto Lady Three."

Eventually, they reached a large stone wall blocking their path within a forest clearing. There was a particularly unnerving presence about the area as well, all of the surrounding trees were dead and the shadows they cast formed a tangled black web of silhouettes against the ground. They were undoubtedly growing closer to Three's shrine, so much so, that her voice played from an unknown location.

_Trial 1_

_You throw me out when you need to use me,_

_Then take me in when you don't._

_What am I?_

"Anyone else getting the creeps?" Dito remarked.

Four put her hand on her hip. "More so than usual traveling alongside you?"

"Hey dummy, go fly and see what's up ahead," Zero said.

"Okay!"

"So what was that about? Why did I hear Three's voice just now?"

"A riddle most likely, Lady Three's quite fond of them. Usually, they surmount to nothing more than nonsense, but it seems as if this riddle is begging for a specific answer. Which is quite unusual for her," Octa said.

"That girl's messed in the head. Sounds like she's talking about an ex or something."

"Surprised you know about that stuff seeing as you're not the committed type," Dito said.

"Believe it or not I used to have a life before all this bullshit happened...hey, what're you looking at me like that for?!"

"Er- no reason."

"Might I add that riddle doesn't describe Lady Three's behavior in the slightest! Whenever that mad woman's aroused rawwwr, she's practically an unstoppable force! Oh, how does Octa junior miss those days..."

"First off, gross Octa, and second, you're all entirely missing the point. This is a riddle, remember? It purposely uses vague language to describe a concrete idea, so the answer's more obvious than you think," Four said.

"So what is it then you pretentious little shit?" Zero asked.

"An anchor."

*ding-ding

Without warning, a giant anchor flew past them, dividing the group apart. Riku already knew what was about to follow, so he preemptively locked blades with the Anchor Raider attached to the anchor.

Rather than take it out the old fashioned way, Riku snatched the Anchor Raider's chain, then wrapped it around its body before finishing it off with a final stab through its chest. _'Incorporating heartless into riddles is a new one.'_

The stone wall opened up, allowing their passage through. However, yet another stone wall obstructed their path with a convoluted riddle that served as their only key to entry.

_Trial 2_

_Those on the inside hate me,_

_Those on the outside are fond of me._

_Everyone has me inside of them,_

_Yet no one wants to be inside of me._

_What am I?_

"Oh my god, who cares? Just drop the next heartless so we can move on," Zero said.

*ERRR

As punishment for Zero's wrong answer, several sharp spears emerged from the ground, almost impaling them.

"So she has traps for wrong answers, that means there's no room for error. Fortunately, I already figured this one out," Four said.

"No way, really?" Dito asked.

"Mm-hm, it's a cage. The last line was a dead giveaway."

*ding-ding

"Huh, people aren't wrong about the beauty vs brains thing."

"Your incredible intellect always amazes me, Lady Four," Decadus said.

"Uh-huh, so I assume we should be facing a heartless soon."

"That's right. Everyone needs to keep their guard up," Riku said.

Once the ground began to violently shake, everyone readied their weapons, but no one was prepared for when the heartless shot out from underground and swallowed Zero whole like a shark. Luckily, Zero was still alive, though she questioned if she wanted to be since she was now trapped in the belly of the Parasitic Cage heartless.

"Sucks to be Zero," Dito said.

"That heartless...you guys stay back, I'll handle this."

"Fuck this! I don't need your dumbass to save me!" Zero used her sword to cut through the Pararistic Cage's flesh and broke herself free, though she was far from done with the heartless. Zero took it upon herself to slash the everliving hell out of it until it was reduced down to unrecognizable chunks of flesh.

"Not bad, Zero," Riku said.

Zero flipped him off in response.

Rolling his eyes at her immaturity, he went ahead and cremated the Parasitic Cage with a Firaga spell to free its heart.

Now that the heartless was defeated, the stone wall opened up. This time around there wasn't another riddle waiting on the other side, but there were hordes of hybrid soldiers to fight off along the way to the shrine.

"̷̤̠̔̕I̸̢͖͝ ̵̖̀Ẅ̵̨́̇Ǐ̶͈̬L̴̠̇L̷̫͓͊͘ ̸̨̰́D̶̜͌I̶̳̗̽Ë̶̬͈͑ ̸̻̔̌F̶͕͖̃͂O̶̹͋̂R̷̤͛͝ ̸̻̒L̵̳̀A̸̧͖̽̂D̶̼̅̓Y̷̟̌͑ ̴̧̖̿̃T̵͓͒̍H̸̨̝͆R̵̝͒̔E̷̡͎̋E̵͍̺̾͝!̶̨͓͆́ ̵̳̿U̴̩͗̕ṋ̴̓l̴̠̱̋̓é̷̥͇̑s̵͓͙̅s̷̖̃ ̸̱̹̂I̵̤͊̚'̴͕̈́m̸̲͔̎ ̴̳̭̽a̶͈̤͐l̵͕̂r̸̞̽e̵͖̗͋̊a̶̩̩͂d̶͙̦̿̅ý̵̥̖͝ ̷͋͜d̷͕̀̊é̸̦ǎ̴̘̬d̷̙̥̈̊.̶̢͑͘.̶̝̔.̷̩̬̏̎"̷̪̑

Either Riku was getting stronger or the hybrid soldiers were getting weaker because all it took was a single Dark Firaga spell to incinerate the soldiers, leaving nothing but charred remains behind. "Hate that I even have to do this. It's sick what Three did to her soldiers," Riku said.

"I must agree with you there. It's one of the reasons why I decided to part ways with her in fear I would become her next test subject. She already had me frightened when she talked about cutting off my pride and joy," Octa said.

Decadus sighed. "How I envy you Octa..."

"'Course you would get off to that," Dito said.

It wasn't long before they ended up at the final stone wall that barred entry and it offered the most challenging riddle yet.

_Trial 3_

_There is no proof that I exist._

_But what I do can't be dismissed._

_Most want nothing to do with me_

_Yet some try desperately to meet me._

_Whether young, rich, old, or poor_

_Someday, I will knock at your door._

_What am I?_

Everyone turned to Four. "Wh- What's everyone looking at me for?"

"You're the only one who's good at solving riddles," Riku said.

"He he, well you're not wrong, but this one's particularly unclear so we must be careful how we approach this one. Maybe we should share ideas, two heads are better than one afterall."

"Eh, I dunno about that. Knowing Dec he's just gonna deliberately say the wrong answer so the trap will activate," Dito said.

"What- I would never potentially put the ladies in danger for the sake of my own selfish desires!"

Dito smirked. "Even if we have the chance to fall into oh I don't know- a pit of deadly snakes and die a slow, painful death?"

"D-Don't tantalize me, how cruel- Oh!"

"That sadistic one has quite the grotesque mind. So what are your thoughts on this riddle, Lady Four?" Octa asked.

"The answer obviously can't be death since the first line debunks that, but I believe it's something related to it."

"So it's related to death, but it's not real? Doesn't that sound like the Grim Reaper?" Riku said.

*ding-ding

"Wow, good job, Riku!"

"Oh dear, so this heartless is going to be based on the Grim Reaper? That's rather worrisome," Octa said.

"We should be fine as long as we stick together."

Four clung onto Riku's arm.

"Not literally."

There was an eerie silence that followed as they waited for the heartless to reveal itself. Those few seconds before the Grim Reaper made its grand entrance dragged on like hours, but Riku didn't let his guard slip for a moment. As soon as the heartless swung its giant scythe at Riku, he cast a Reflect spell, then parried with a clean strike down the middle of its body.

"Ah, watch this Riku!" While the Grim Reaper was still stunned from Riku's attack, Four outright took the scythe out of its claws, then lodged it straight into its chest. "Let's finish it off now!"

"Uh- right." Riku was a little taken aback by Four's aggressiveness, but he went ahead and lit it on fire, but it retreated back into the shadows in an attempt to save itself. ' _It went away, and that was the last of my magic too. Better be careful from now on.'_

"Thank god, are we done here?" Zero asked.

"Seeing as how the door's still closed, no. The heartless is waiting around to attack us again," Riku said.

"Are you fucking serious? You can't do anything right."

He walked up to her. "What's your problem? All you've been doing is complain and be a jackass all day!"

"What the fuck did you call me?!"

"And here we go," Dito said.

Just as their argument was about to erupt, they were interrupted by the Grim Reaper reappearing in a stronger form. It rapidly spun its scythe around, then threw it at Riku and Zero so they had to quickly split up on opposite sides of the field to dodge the attack.

Riku ran up to the Grim Reaper while it was scythe-less to get the jump on it, but its scythe instantly formed in its claws and it clashed blades with Riku. The two went back and forth trading blow after blow, in the meantime, everyone else was backing Riku up. Everyone except for Zero that is, who wasn't interested in helping him so she waited around in the sidelines.

With the damage Riku was stacking, he was only a few hits away from finally defeating the Grim Reaper, but yet again, it vanished on him. However, it didn't retreat back to the shadows like he was expecting, instead, it loomed over Zero who was completely unaware of its presence.

"-Zero! Watch out!" Riku was about to launch his keyblade at the ghastly creature when the Flower's voice haunted once more.

**Just let her die.**

' _You again.'_ He hesitated, only for a moment, but that's all it took for the Grim Reaper to cleave Zero's head off. There was an initial shock from seeing Zero killed in such a gruesome manner, all the blood that sprayed out from her neck as her head fell on the ground made Riku want to throw up. Despite that, he pushed on, obliterating the heartless as soon he reached it. Then he just collapsed on the ground, utterly disillusioned at this point and a gut-wrenching pain twisting his stomach into knots.

**Don't you feel better now that she's out of the way?**

Before Riku's heart could sink any lower, he heard loud, pained screams, not coming from the others, but Zero's decapitated head as her flower grew substantially. All of them watched on as another Zero, new body and all, dragged herself out of the Flower's bloodstained petals.

"So that's how an Intoner regenerates? Nice," Dito said.

"And it looked absolutely...e-excruciating...Uuunnnngh," Decadus said.

"Show some decorum you two," Four hissed.

"Z...Zero?" Riku reached over to try and help her up but she slapped his hand away.

"Don't fucking touch me."

"H- How are you still alive? I just saw you..."

"I don't die easily, okay?"

Even though Riku found out about Zero's apparent immortality, his guilt didn't go away, he felt responsible for the state she was in so he went out of his way to help her. "Let me get that blood off you at least," He insisted.

"No, don't-"

But it was too late and Riku already went ahead with a Water spell. Once all the blood was washed off Zero was now butt naked in front of them and poor Riku's heart was about to stop.

"Oh ho ho, this sure does get the old motor running! It's truly a pleasure to gaze upon your well-endowed body in the broad daylight, Lady Zero," Octa said.

Four took it upon herself to cover Riku's eyes and turn him the other way. "Don't be gross like those other pigs, Riku."

"Sorry..."

Zero went to pick up the better half of her cadaver. "...Let's set up camp here, I've had enough of today. Someone go call my dragon down, I don't feel like it." She disappeared into the woods outside the now opened stone wall.

Later that night, Riku was bringing in the last of the firewood while the others, save for Octa and Zero, were huddled around the campfire.

"So be honest, does my black eye look better?" Four asked.

Dito shrugged. "There's not as much pus coming out of it."

"That's good. I was worried my body wouldn't heal as fast since I lost my Intoner powers."

"Didn't Riku cast a spell on it or something?"

"...That's true."

"Does your stomach feel any better? Perhaps that would be a better indicator of your recovery speed."

"Kind of, I think? I'm not feeling as nauseous. Well, it's a good thing I wasn't the one who got my head off or I would've definitely died."

"Oh no, what a nightmare," Dito said sarcastically.

Decadus nodded. "It truly would be."

Right when they were enjoying a quiet, Octa suddenly hobbled out of the woods and confronted Riku.

"Can I help you, old man?"

"I'm not- ugh, nevermind, there's more pressing concerns." He crossed his arms. "Riku, I believe I'm a simple man. The only thing I truly desire in this world is what every man desires at some point in his life."

"Which is...?"

"I desire my daily dose of carnal action! To conquer the pink fortress, to lust and THRUUU-"

"Get to the point."

"Zero said she didn't want sex and Octa got pissy," Dito said.

Four put down the book she was reading. "Seriously? That's unlike Zero."

"I know right? Which makes you wonder what pretty boy did exactly to piss her off like this."

"...Leave me out of this." Annoyed, Riku walked away, but Four ended up following after him.

She put her hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I know it's none of my business to get involved, but... I'm worried about you. We're friends so you can tell me if something's bothering you."

He sighed. "...I don't even know where to begin. I messed up so much."

"Don't say that Riku. Whatever happened between you and Zero couldn't have been that bad."

He rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know...I guess I accidentally gave Zero the wrong idea and she tried to sleep with me last night. Then today I told her I didn't like it. Was ...that bad?"

"Ummm, knowing you, you were probably really blunt with her so I wouldn't be surprised if you hurt her feelings a little."

"Hurt her feelings? Are we talking about the same Zero?"

"I know Zero tends to put up a front, but underneath it all, she's the type of girl who only sees herself as having value in the bed. So you rejecting her took a blow to her already low self-esteem."

"I see...thanks. I'm glad I can rely on you."

"Sure, no problem." Four watched Riku leave, although she was happy she could be there for him, she couldn't help but feel a sinking feeling in her heart. _'Stop it Four, you already blew your chances with him a long time ago so sulking like this is pretty pathetic. Just move on already, there's plenty of guys out there like him. Right?'_

While Four was grappling with her unrequited love, Riku was wandering around the surrounding woods searching for Zero. He soon found her leaning against a tree in the middle of fine-tuning her prosthetic arm.

"There you are. Listen Zero, I'm sorry that I hurt you, I'm just...really confused right now and I shouldn't have dragged you into it."

"I know."

"...What?"

She stood up and looked him dead in the eye. "Just be honest with me. You have it, don't you? The Flower."

"...Yeah," He admitted.

She pressed her hand into her face. "Fuck..."

"I don't get it. How or...when did you find out?"

"Tch, I'm not stupid you know. I've had my suspicions from the beginning, ever since you 'saved' Four, I just...didn't want to believe it. I tried to ignore it and give you the benefit of the doubt because I thought you could fight it off or whatever, I don't know, but you got progressively worse. Then when I died and I saw your face- you looked so fucking guilty and torn up about it, that's when I realized I just couldn't ignore it anymore. That thing's probably eating you up inside and saying stuff in your head, right?"

He didn't say anything which only confirmed Zero's suspicions.

"So it's true." She squeezed her hand into a fist. "I'm sorry. It's all of my damn fault for putting you through this shit, but I'm ending this right now. I'm going to kill the rest of my sisters and then...I'm going to kill you too. So... run away from me and don't ever look my way again, Riku."

 _No longer could the Intoner_ _play pretend._

_No longer was she willing to bend._

_She was determined to eradicate the Flower,_

_and that meant seeing to the Keyblade Wielder's end._

**Flowers for the Dead**

****

****

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for long update , next one will be shorter ;—;


	13. "Darkness"

_Experiment notes #022_

_**Patience** _

_Month X / Day X_

_The white in her hair is starting to come in and her eyes have already turned golden._

_Her recovery seems to be going along well, albeit slowly._

_I inject the demon's essence directly into her body little by little. It's a delicate process, but I mustn't rush or she'll turn into a demon._

_You'll wake up soon, dear elder sister..._

—

Without another word, Riku walked away from Zero, his thoughts weighing heavy on his mind. ' _Every time I stick my neck out for her I just end up paying for it in the end. And Accord said people were changing for the better? Yeah right, that sure was a lie.'_

**You're catching on.**

Riku returned to the campsite to pick up his belongings when he found Mikhail was still awake. "Isn't it time for you to go to bed?"

"I know, but I ...I can't sleep."

As much as Riku just wanted to walk away, for Mikhail's sake, he pushed his emotions aside and sat down next to him. "I know how you feel. You wanna know what I used to do when I couldn't sleep?"

"Uhhh what?"

"I would try to count all the stars in the sky. Never failed to put me to sleep when I was a kid."

"Stars?"

"Those small lights you see in the sky every night. You know, they say for every star up there is another world."

Mikhail's eyes widened. "Really? Where'd you hear that from?"

"Uh- I don't remember."

"That's okay, that's still super cool! There's a whole bunch of stars in the sky so that means there's a whole bunch of worlds too! Maaaybe even a world where there's a lotta dragons like me. What do you think, Riku?"

"It's possible, but you're pretty much one of a kind, Mikhail."

"That's good! I think? Wish I could just fly everyone to one of those stars so we could be somewhere nicer. Somewhere where we can all be happy, there's no more bad guys and-and where we can roll around in the mud without getting yelled at, y'know?"

"That would be nice. Except the rolling around in the mud part."

"Although... flying away would just be the easy way out. We can make this place better ourselves!"

"That's easier said than done." Riku stood up. "I need to leave. Get some sleep, okay?"

"Wh- Where are you going?"

"I'm going to find Three and take her down."

"'Cause you wanna save her like Four, right?"

"Yeah...sure. All I know is that she's not going to win."

_'There's something different about Riku. He's scary like Zero now.'_

"And Mikhail, let's keep this conversation between the two of us. The others wouldn't get it."

"O-Okay...you can count on me Riku! Uh, good-bye."

"Later."

After leaving the campsite behind, he made his way to the Lost Forest. An accurate description because the forest itself was devoured by a fog so thick, a person could take a few steps in and get lost for hours.

Undeterred by the fog, Riku pushed through, as he expected there were more heartless and hybrid soldiers creeping around the heavy mist than he'd ever faced in the Land of Forests. However, be they heartless or soldier Riku showed no mercy, he plowed through all of them without a second thought, focusing only on finding Three. With the progress he was making, he figured he'd be out of the Lost Forest in no time, but a cry for help pulled him out of the action.

"—Hello?! I-If anyone's out there, I desperately need your help!"

_'Someone's in danger.'_ Cupping his hands over her mouth, he yelled, "Hey! Whoever you are, just keep talking! I'll find you!"

"— _Keep_ talking? I don't get that too often!"

' _Is this guy seriously making jokes about it?'_

"—Alright then, how about some trivia to lighten the mood a bit? Diiiid you know these demons running all over the place are actually the souls of stillborn babies? It kind of makes you think, doesn't it?

' _What is he going on about?'_ Due to all of his excessive talking, it didn't take long for Riku to find the young man in need who was in the middle of fending himself off against a large body heartless. Once Riku arrived, he defeated it in a matter of seconds.

The young man lowered his sword, breathing out a sigh of relief. "Hah, I was going toe to toe with that demon longer than I care to admit and you took it down like it was nothing! I'd be embarrassed if I wasn't grateful for your help, which begs the question, are you perhaps the famous 'demon slayer' I've been searching for?"

"What if I am?"

"If you are then you just made my job ten times easier!" He bowed down. "The name's Cent, Lady Two's devilishly handsome disciple, and I was 'cent' by Lady Three to retrieve you."

"So you know where Three is?"

"Yes, her shrine's actually not too far off from our current location."

"Take me to her."

"Just like that, hm? By the by, Lady Three also asked me to deliver this message to you as an incentive to meet her."

"She can tell me herself. Lead the way."

"Fantastic! I do love it when things so perfectly fall into place. What's your name anyway?"

"Riku."

"Ah, Riku!" Cent put his arm around Riku's shoulder. "From one good-looking guy to the next, I have a feeling you and I are going to be getting along quite well!"

"You talk way too much for that to happen."

"Nevermind then!"

* * *

"Is this okay?"

"Yeah..."

"I'm not hurting you, am I?"

"Shut up already. You're ruining it."

"Sorry." Riku lowered his head and pressed his lips onto hers, when he raised his head, he held her face in his hands. "...Feel better now?"

"A little."

"Of course you'd say that. I...wish I could stay with you longer."

"What's stopping you?"

He smiled at her. "You're better off dead, that's why. You already know it." In a sudden turn of events, Riku's hand moved down to her neck and he continued to smile as he slowly strangled the life out of her. "Tonight is the last night you'll see my face."

.

.

.

Zero woke up in a cold sweat and her heart was nearly ready to beat out of her chest. "What the fuck?! Damn it...another nightmare." ' _How many of those fucking dreams do I need to have? What do those even mean, that I'm horny AND want to die?'_ She stood up off the ground. ' _Guess I should get my mind off of it for now._ _Octa's been whining about sex for a while, might as well get it over with.'_

"Hey, gramps." She kicked Octa awake. "Get up and make it quick."

"Oh ho ho! Yes ma'am on the double! How I've been waiting for this moment!"

By the time Zero and Octa returned, the others were already awake and getting ready for what the day would bring.

"I said make it quick and it still took an hour," Zero grumbled.

"Oh, hello Zero. Have you seen Riku anywhere?" Four asked.

"He's gone."

"To where? Riku would never just outright leave."

Zero went up to Four, leaning in to speak into her ear. "If you want to keep breathing, then I suggest you stop talking."

"...I understand." ' _Riku and Zero must've had a really bad falling out so I better stay on her good side for now. I wonder where he could've run off too though?'_

Mikhail got up, stretching his wings out and yawning. _'I'm so pooped, I didn't sleep at all last night 'cause I kept on worrying about Riku. I hope he's okay, wherever he is.'_

While Zero and the others were on their way to Three's shrine, Riku and Cent had just arrived at the massive tree. It was undeniably the center of all darkness in the Land of Forests, in fact, the tree itself was dying, all the leaves had long since fallen off and large stretches of bark were peeling away.

"How is it already almost morning? We left at night," Riku said.

"Apologies, we would've gotten here much sooner if not for my abysmal cent-s of direction, ha ha!"

"..."

"Tough crowd, huh."

Riku and Cent ventured inside the hollow tree to find the floor littered with dead animals.

Cent pinched his nose. "Well, that's disgusting. This place gets more cluttered every time I visit."

"Three! Where are you?! The demon slayer is here!"

After a few minutes of waiting, a dark portal manifested from the center of the floor and Three dragged herself out from the darkness. Her appearance was more haggardly than it had ever been. No longer the beauty of the forest, her face was now sunken in and her body was skeleton-like, making her look ancient.

Riku took a moment to analyze the situation. ' _If she knows how to use a dark portal, then her heart's already steeped in darkness. Not surprising considering the terrible things she's done.'_

"Someone needs to take a bath," Cent said under his breath.

"Excuse the mess. It's breakfast time." Three clapped her hands together and dozens of mutated heartless clawed out of the shadows to feed upon the animal carcasses. She misread the confusion and disgust on Riku and Cent's faces as curiosity, so she elaborated further, "Roy and Hohenheim get cranky if they're not fed on time, then there's-"

Riku pointed his keyblade at her. "Enough. You have a message for me, right? Tell me what it is so we can get this over with."

She grinned at him. "I haven't forgotten about you, demon slayer. Come, let's move somewhere more spacious."

"And what of Lady Two's condition?" Cent asked.

"She's fine. Probably."

He let out a nervous laugh. "Ha...Ha...I do love it when you toy around with my heart."

Three led them to a lofty area where enormous vines dangled from the top of the shrine. She faced Riku. "You're the predator and I'm the prey. I'm sure you're just itching to kill me."

"Not at all, but I am going to stop you from terrorizing people with your heartless."

"Heartless? Hmmm. That's an apt description. The fact that you possess a name for those demons is quite damning evidence, wouldn't you agree?"

"What're you talking about?"

"I didn't tell Riku your message. He wanted to hear it from you, Lady Three," Cent said.

"Riku is this boy's name? Fascinating. Well then Riku, I detest repeating myself, but I will for you," She stared deep into his eyes. "...You don't belong here. Not in this world."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do. Isn't it strange that when the 'heartless' rose, soon after, a demon slayer came who possessed the exact powers to destroy them? I suppose that's mere conjecture, but in a way, you're like me. You're different from everyone."

"So what?! That doesn't change anything, I'm still going to stop you!"

"Mm, my natural enemy indeed. I wish not to have this end in bloodshed so instead, I ask that you join my cause and help me continue the spread of heartless."

"Join your cause?! You're sick! I would never help you turn innocent people into heartless!"

"You're mistaken. All I've done is make my soldiers stronger to the point where they're incapable of death. Is there something wrong with that? Are you saying it'd bad to help someone?"

"You're not helping anyone! You're just causing them to suffer!"

"Heh. On the contrary, my soldiers aren't suffering at all. They feel nothing. Therefore no sadness or pain. I want to share that with the rest of this miserable world as well. A world where no one has to die. No one has to suffer. And I can spend the rest of time with my little dolls. Doesn't that sound better than how everything is now?"

"This woman's crazy," Cent said.

Riku shook his head. "She's too far gone to listen to reason. I'll just have to make her understand!" He ran towards Three, then swung his blade at her.

Three jumped back to avoid Riku's attack. "So you have chosen death? Unfortunate. You would've made a great companion." With a flick of her wrist, the area flooded with hundreds of heartless, she twirled her hand around and they fused together into a Demon Tower.

"And that's my cue to leave. Let me know how things turn out if you survive!" Cent ran away while the Demon Tower spiraled towards Riku.

' _These stupid things again.'_ Riku used flowmotion to ride across the twister of shadows. When he reached the end, he jumped off and cast Firaga, coupling it with Aeroga to intensify the flames. By the time the fire burned itself out, the Demon Tower was significantly down on its health and Riku had no problem taking it out.

"Impressive. Alas, we've only just begun." Three raised her arm and hybrid soldiers rose from the darkness. "Destroy him."

""̸̟̝́̆̈́̎À̵̹ͅş̶̬͍̋͌̕͜ ̸̙̠̦͐ͅy̸̰̖̤̹̍͘ơ̸̺u̵̝̓̈́ ̸̝̮͉͋ŵ̷̜̻̦̔̎͒i̴̧̮͒́̕ͅș̶̳͙͎̕h̷̠̳̪͎̓͑̀ ̸̨̨̡͔̾L̴̢͉̐̾͘ä̵̟̻́̑̏͠d̶̜̜̦̲̓y̶̬͉̕ ̵̢̩̮̽̾T̵͔̐͐̐ĥ̸̘̋r̸͖͝e̸̬̐͒͘͝ḛ̸̈́̋ͅ.̸̜̗͓̝̈́́̓̉ ̶̞̖̓̃N̷̲̦͓̞͗̾ò̴̡̙̓͜w̸̯͚̿͌͛͝ ̵̡̦̝̱̓́̃̾l̷̖̭͑̕͝ẽ̵̯͍̥̦͘t̷͉̓̃'̵̫̝̋̄͝s̵̨̘̼̙̄̀̚ ̸̣̙͚́̚f̸̰̾̐̀̔i̵̡̯̱̐̐̓͜g̸̢͇̘̫͛ẖ̸̗̭̇͋̚t̷͙́ ̶̪͕̀m̴̧̱͕͇̓̔̿ȇ̵̺̇ǹ̸̢̻͔͈̽͛͝!̶͉̘̼̀"̶̥͖̼̩̈̈́"

Faced with an army of hybrid soldiers, Riku fell back on Dark Thundaga to clear out a path for him to reach Three. "THREE!" He interlocked blades with the Intoner, who used scissors of all weapons to defend herself.

"You're...persistent."

They traded blows for a while until Riku overpowered her and backed her into a corner. "Give it up already! You're finished!"

"When you surround yourself in light, you're blind to the shadows that are behind you."

Suddenly, Riku was apprehended by two hybrid soldiers who snatched his arms from behind. "What the hell?! Let me go!"

Three slowly clapped her hands as the soldiers dragged him away. "Good boy, Ravus."

"̸̗̆̚Ï̶̬̝ ̷̮̈́h̷̹͎̽a̵̧̲͛̇v̶͇͓̍́e̷̜͜͠ ̴͈̜̀u̴̠͈͑̃n̸̫̟̅d̶͉̖̈́y̴͙̿͛i̷̛̪ǹ̸̻̏ğ̶̣͑ ̶͈͖͝l̴̼̆ö̶̡̖́ẏ̴̪ǎ̸̡̹̀ḽ̶̿t̶̨̉͝y̷̲̳̍̈́ ̸̛͔̫f̸̯̅̚ö̸̜̩r̸̰͛ ̵͇͆L̵̳̭̍͊ả̸̩͊d̷̯͋ẏ̴̳͗ ̸̦͋T̷̳͐̂h̸̳̔r̶̡̼̊e̸̅͜ę̷̅.̸͕̈́"̸̟̓

Three walked over to Riku, snapping her scissors together. "My offer's still available unless you take pleasure in suffering, that is."

"I already said no!"

"I see." She dug her scissors into Riku's stomach, twisting around just to take pleasure in his pain. "Now let him go."

"Ah...D...Damn it..." The soldiers threw Riku to the ground and a pool of blood formed around his body.

"Hee hee! Worry not Riku, when I'm done 'examining' your body, I'll see exactly what makes you tick and claim your power as my own. So you'll help me whether you want to or not! Won't that be a blast?!" She ran her tongue along the edge of her scissors, tasting Riku's blood. "I can already feel myself getting aroused by the thought alone!"

**Allow me to assist you.**

**I will heal your wounds.**

' _I don't need your help! I can heal myself!'_

"C...Curaga..."

"Curaga?"

Catching Three off guard, Riku snatched her long hair and forced her on the ground. When the soldiers tried to attack him, he cast Thundaga. Three nearly got electrocuted as well, but she narrowly escaped through a dark portal.

"Pity. I might just have to thoroughly mutilate you instead," Three said, re-appearing across from him.

"Bring it on!"

"—WAAAaaahhHH!" Out of the blue, Mikhail fell inside Three's shrine and got tangled up in the hanging vines. "WHOA! I'm still alive!"

"Mikhail? What're you doing here?!" Riku yelled.

"Oh hey Riku, I have no idea! I was on a bridge and it collapsed then I somehow ended up here."

"He's Zero's dragon, is he not? Which means my sister will be arriving here shortly...I'll have to hurry things along then." Three snapped her fingers together to summon another Demon Tower.

"Wait a second guys- don't fight anymore! You can talk things out," Mikhail said.

"It's a little late for that Mikhail!"

"Now for the finale." As her final card to play, Three sang the second verse to her song.

**Verse 2-3**

_Sleep. I shall give thee disaster._

Under the influence of Three's song, the Demon Tower outright exploded and hundreds of them were now flying all over the place. Mikhail used his wings to shield against the heartless and without magic, Riku could only rely on his keyblade to protect himself, but he inevitably got swept up by the wave of darkness.

**Do you still refuse my assistance?**

' _I already told you I don't need your help.'_

**How foolish.**

**Are you so afraid of me that you would rather die here?**

**No wonder you can't save Sora,**

**You simply lack the strength.**

_'I keep trying to fight, but what am I even doing any of this for?'_

_'Why am I fighting?'_

_'It's not like it changes anything.'_

_'No matter what I do in this world, people still die around me.'_

_'What about this world is worth saving?'_

**Close your eyes and fade away.**

' _I'm so tired of fighting...'_

' _I'm so tired of hearing your voice.'_

' _Maybe I should...'_

"—Riku? Riku, can you hear me?"

' _Mikhail...'_

"Well even if you can't I'm gonna keep talking anyways! You can't give up right now, okay? You gotta keep fighting! Remember what I said last night about making everything better? You're the reason why I believe we can do it! You're so brave and cool and you help people even when it hurts you in the end! I wanna be just like you Riku, so let's make everyone happy together!"

_'I remember now. The reason why I keep fighting.'_

_'I can't give up like this. I need to be someone who people can believe in. That's what it means to be a keyblade wielder!'_

**Are you done rambling on?**

**What a waste of-**

"Be quiet. If you're going to be a part of me, from now on I'm gonna use every bit of your power so I can protect my friends!" Channeling the Flower's darkness that resided within him, Riku's keyblade transformed into a form resembling Way to Dawn, but with key differences that reflected the Flower's influence. Now, rose thorns adorned the new keyblade, wrapping around its blade and guard.

Revitalized by a new sense of purpose, Riku's magic flowed back in him and he cast Mega Flare, burning every last heartless to ash. All of the heartless except Three that was, he saved her for last. Charging at Three with blindingly fast speeds, Riku slammed his keyblade down on her, shattering through her defense.

"Give it up and surrender, Three!"

"D...Damn it!"

At the worst timing possible, Zero and the others finally arrived inside the shrine.

"Yay! Zero you're here too! Now all of my friends are back together again!" Mikhail cheered.

"Zero?" The moment Riku took his eyes off of Three, she immediately escaped into a dark portal. "Shoot, she's gone now!"

"...I told you to leave, so why the hell are you still here?!"

"I'm not running away. I realized what's important and why I need to keep fighting. No matter what, I'll always protect my friends!"

Zero raised her sword to Riku. "...the target's changed. You're the one who I'm going to kill."

"Z-Zero...how could you?" Mikhail whimpered.

Although Four was terrified to go against her sister's wishes, she wasn't going to keep her head down anymore, not when Riku's life was on the line. She reeled her gauntlet back and punched Zero in the face so hard that she fell on the ground.

"Oh shit," Dito said.

"I'm sorry Zero, but you're not going to kill the man that I love! Please understand!"

Riku raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what?"

Zero wiped off the blood dribbling from her mouth. If she wasn't already pissed before, now she was absolutely livid. "I'll murder both of you and TEAR YOUR FUKCING BODIES APART!"

**VERSE 7**

_I HEAR THE FUCKING SCREAMS OF THE BLACK FLOWER_

_AND I ANSWER ITS PRAYERS OF BLOOD!_

Four grabbed Riku's hand. "We need to go! Zero's invulnerable to attack when she's in Intoner mode!"

"Did you say that you...loved me?"

She started to blush. "Wh-Why are you focusing on that right now?! She's trying to kill us!"

As Zero chased after them, the disciples stood on the sidelines.

"I feel conflicted as to whether I should get involved. Technically, I'm Lady Zero's disciple, but I wouldn't dare lay a hand on Lady Four," Decadus said.

"Pretty sure you'll get in the way. Just relax and enjoy the show, I know I am!" Dito exclaimed.

Octa sighed. "You're a sadistic fellow, aren't you?"

"Stop running you cowards! Stay still so I can KILL YOU!" Zero screamed.

"Oh my god-oh my god-oh my god! I didn't think this through!"

"Four, I need you to go somewhere safe. I'll handle Zero," Riku said.

"No way, we're in this together."

"I know that you, uh, care about me, but I want you to be safe. You've done more than enough already."

"Okay...well you put it like that I guess I can't argue. Just please don't be too reckless!"

Once Four ran back to the sidelines, Riku faced Zero and clashed blades with her. "We don't have to fight, Zero! Just listen to me!"

"Listen to your bullshit pipedream?! That Flower has to be destroyed or we're all dead and that means killing you and every last Intoner in this miserable! Fucking! WORLD!" Zero slashed Riku straight across his chest multiple times, cutting in deeper and deeper as she poured her emotions into each sword swing

Riku blocked Zero's subsequent sword swing, then knocked her sword out of her hands. "I'll find a way so no one has to die and suffer anymore. I won't give up until this world is better!"

"You sound just like a child!" Zero quickly pulled out another sword, a heavier one than her usual dragon sword, but she proceeded with her attack as if it were weightless. "...But if you're so damn sure then tell me! How are you going to make this world any less shitty than it already is?"

"I don't know for sure. That's why I want you to help me find the answer, Zero!"

"You want my _help_? You're out of your goddamn mind! Every last person in this world deserves to burn in HELL! I've been beaten down all of my life, I don't owe these motherfuckers anything!"

"But you're still fighting! Even if this world owes you nothing, you're still trying to destroy the Flower! That's proof enough that a part of you still cares, so help me out! Help me save everyone who's suffering!"

"For the last time, you can't save anyone! The Flower will destroy you before any of that happens!"

"No, it won't! It'll try to, but I'll always keep fighting it off! I'll use the light to guide me and... I'll use it to save you too, Zero!"

"I don't want you to save me! Don't you get it? I want to die, Riku! That's the one thing I'm looking forward to when the rest of this shit is over and you have no right to intervene! So just give up and let me do that, okay? Let me die so I don't bring you down with me."

"...No, I'm not doing that."

"You...you just don't know what you're talking about! If you knew who I was, then you'd want me to die too. I already know how much I don't deserve to live."

"I don't know what you've been through or what your past was like, but I'm willing to bet you want to move on from it. I'll help you find your light and you can decide what to do for yourself, but I'll be there every step of the way."

"Why would you ever waste your time on me?"

"Because we're friends and friends have to lean on each other once in a while, right?" He put his keyblade down and offered his hand to her. "So what do you say? We can keep fighting and you can die full of regrets or we can find a new path together."

_Once upon a time, there was a young woman who was hated by the world._

_["You're a worthless daughter. I can't wait until I finally can get rid of you."]_

_She made a vow long ago to never trust another person,_

_["You want me to come with you? Please, the only thing you're good for is sex, nothing else."]_

_To never open her heart up._

_["We've finally gotten ahold of you, 'witch with eyes of rose'. You were born with nothing and now you'll die with nothing."]_

_And yet, she let it happen, over and over again._

"...Fine." Zero's eyesight was getting blurrier and blurrier until Riku looked like a bunch of blobs. She reached out to his hand and when she held on to it, she didn't want to let it go. "But... I won't make any promises."

He smiled. "At least you're getting there."

Now that the bloodshed was over, Four ran over to them, a relieved look on her face. "This is great! I'm happy you two came to an understanding!"

"Rotten bitch!" Zero punched Four in the face to return the favor, then angrily pulled at her cheeks. "I didn't forget about what you did! Put your hands on me like that again and I'll kill you!"

"I'm sowwy Zewo! Pwwease lemme go!"

"Heh, you guys do kind of behave like siblings sometimes," Riku said.

Zero let go of Four, then turned back to Riku. "I guess there's a lot we need to talk about."

"-Hold on! I'm glad you two are done fighting and stuff, but can someone pleeeease get me down from here? I feel really dizzy," Mikhail whined.

"Oh right, forgot about that dummy. Sit tight, I'll go-"

A giant laser blasted out of seemingly nowhere and created a small explosion that left everyone on the ground. Once the dust settled, two armored daemons stood before them, one of them held Mikhail in its arm while the other held none other than Cent in its hand. "Well hello there! I see quite a few old and new faces here, this is a bit awkward, isn't it? In any case, you should be relieved that I'm taking this horrid dragon off your hands."

"You bastard! Put him down!" Zero yelled.

"Riku used his keyblade to stand himself up. "Give him back or else!"

"Or else what? You do realize I'm holding your dragon hostage. Try not to do something stupid."

"Ugh! What're you doing here Cent? You should be taking care of Two," Four said.

"—Who said he wasn't?" A dark portal appeared in between the daemons and out came Two with Three following behind her. Just like Three, Two was also under the influence of the darkness. Her hair was almost completely white and her deep blue eyes were now a sickening yellow color.

"No way...T-Two, is it really you? But I thought you were-"

"I fixed her," Three said. "Be grateful to your older sister."

"Whatever she did can't be good," Riku said.

But it was too late, Four already pulled herself up off the ground and rushed over to Two with tears in her eyes. She embraced her sister, digging her face into her scarf as she sobbed into it. "I- I missed you so much, Two! I-I thought I would never hear your voice again! I'm so happy you're here with me!"

Two reluctantly hugged her back. "Aw, you've always been such a crybaby little sis, but don't worry now, your big sis Two is here!" She stroked her head. "You've must have gone through a lot, haven't you? I can tell how much you've matured since I've last seen you."

"Yeah...b-but it's okay...I'm okay now. It's all thanks to Riku that I've become stronger now."

"Really? I'm proud of you, Four."

"You're...proud of me? That makes me so happy Two."

"I'm glad. Now sleep peacefully."

"H-Huh?"

In a cruel betrayal of her sister's trust, Two sunk her sword into Four's chest. "That's what you get for being a traitor you stupid brat."

"T...Two...why?" Her cheery, upbeat voice and bright smile put Four into a false sense of security when she was nothing more than a wolf in sheep's clothing. Now she would have the pay the price for her naivety. Four fell down to her knees and was about to hit the ground, but Riku rushed over and held her in her arms. He tried to cast Curaga on her, but she was still unresponsive.

"No...Four...you have to hang in there! Don't give up so easily!"

Decadus also hurried to Four's side. "Oh no...normally she would have survived a wound like this but... her Intoner powers are no more...I'm afraid-"

"No! Don't say that! Don't tell me she's dead!"

"Jeez, can you get anymore dramatic? You're acting like she was your girlfriend or something," Two said.

"SHUT UP!" Riku handed Four to Decadus, then charged at Two, but she immediately dodged his attack and grabbed hold of his arm.

"Don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong, kid." Two slammed Riku into the ground, holding back just enough of her monstrous strength so only a few bones in his body would crack.

Zero was struggling to get up. "No! Damn it, you fucking cunt!"

Octa held Zero back. "That's unwise Lady Zero, those two possess more power than you know."

"How kind of you to spare his life," Three said.

She smirked. "It's more fun if he lives."

"Whatever you say. It's time for us to go."

"Aww already? Just when I was starting to have fun too." She jumped on the daemon Cent was standing on. "Ha ha, has anyone told you how cute you look when you're angry, Zero? The 'I'm-gonna-murder-you' look totally suits you, then again... a dead look would suit you even better! If you want your dragon back so bad, then you'll just have to come and get it. See ya guys later~"

_Life ends._

_Tragedy hits._

_Smiles fade_

_But the world goes on_

_And on_

_And on_

**Flowers for the Dead**

_And on..._

* * *

Post chapter memes to lighten the mood:


	14. "Chained Memories"

Zero tried to shake Riku awake. "...No use. He's out cold." She went over to Decadus who was still cradling Four. "You need to let her go."

Decadus stared solemnly at Four's delicate face. "I...I can't do it...please, let me hold onto her for a while longer."

"The only thing keeping her here is the Flower, she'll disappear any second now. Leave her somewhere before she attracts any heartless."

"I won't let a single heartless touch her!"

"No, you don't get it! You're going to get us-" Zero suddenly pulled her sword out to slash a Darkball heartless that came at her out of nowhere. "Shit! This is what I was talking about, we need to get out of here! Decadus, put her down already and grab Riku!"

"I'm not going to abandon her! If her body has yet to disappear then...maybe there's still a chance to save her!"

There wasn't enough time for Zero to argue with Decadus because Three's shrine was rapidly filling up with droves of pureblooded heartless. Instead, she had Octa and Dito carry Riku while she tried to clear a path for them out of the shrine, but there were so many of them that they ended up getting surrounded.

"Fuck, get rid of her already, Decadus!" Zero yelled.

Decadus clung onto her body. "How could you ask that of me? To throw her away to those demons is a fate worse than death! We can fight these heartless off and still save her!"

"There's no way we can fight all these fuckers off! Look, I _know_ how it feels to lose someone you gave a shit about, but unless you want us all to die you need to put your feelings aside!"

"I- I can't ...I can't let her go like this!"

Zero snatched his collar " _I'm_ your Intoner and you'll do as I say. Let her go, NOW!"

_["Answer me honestly, Decadus. Could you die for me?"]  
_

"I was the one who was supposed to lay my life down for you. Not the other way around. I'm ...I'm so sorry, Lady Four." Decadus finally let go of Four and the heartless ravaged her body, allowing them a brief window of time for their escape.

.

.

.

"Wait up, before I go, let me tell you..."

**1.00 sec**

Huh, since my life is about to end any second now, might as well get everything off my chest. Ha ha, guess I already did since my chest is you know...nevermind. So, I should start with you Zero. Looking back, I must've sounded pretty delusional. I understand why you wanted to kill me, I was a danger to the world and I've killed others for less so it's not like I'm in any position to be angry with you.

There's still so much I wanted to ask you about because̵̳͋̇ I̷̟̦̺̟͌̀̈ ̸͓́̅f̷̤͙̻̰͌͋̋e̵͎͔̅͆͊ę̶͉͚͝ḷ̵̅̓̋ͅ ̴̯̥͒̍̉̇l̸̤̩̀î̸̪͓̦̊̀ḱ̸̤̘e̵̬͔̊́ ̷̧̩̻̿̊͝t̷̠̪̠͗͋h̴̦͈̊͆͗e̸̛̖̘̋̔̌ͅ ̵̬̣̓͗ḿ̸̰͖͈͈͗o̸̖͎͙̎r̶͈̖͑͌̒͝ẹ̷̛͐͐͆ ̴̱̣͐́͝I̶͖̊̔̈́̅ ̴̭̙̮͎̇͋͠ķ̵̯̫̘̍n̸̨̜̬̋o̷̧̪̰̅w̷͕̑̌̃͠ ̶͙̒̑͑a̶͚̣͕͌̚b̴̫̒͒̈̚ô̴̞̇ṵ̸̝̺͚̈́̽͆t̷̢̖̪̱͛̊͂ ̷̳̀̌y̵̦̾̈̌̊o̵͉̤͒ṵ̴͖̮͎̀,̸̗̭̜̫̈́ ̴̗̫̘̩̆̽Z̵̬̽͑ḙ̸̪̙̜̉r̷̮͓̈́͛́o̴̥̞̝̟̒́̑͛,̷̗̥̋̐ ̸͔̆t̸̩̝̘̥̏͊̏͝ḧ̴̻͎͚́̃͋̾ȩ̵̲̜͑͐͠ ̴͔͉͙͎̊m̶̬̥͊ò̸͍͑͐r̴̮͎̳͓̓e̴͖͇̜͐̈̑ ̶̬̠̑Ī̷̱̮ ̴̦͇̳͉̾̋k̸̝̤̱̃̄n̶̡̆̈̀ó̸̟͙̣̣w̵̧̎͒̊̌ ̸̛͎̹̠̒̄̈ǎ̵̠̈̓b̴̘̈́ő̶̦͓͓͎̍u̴͙̗̮͔̒̒̀̾t̶̬̏ ̷̛̹̖̻̊̐m̴̝͕̃ȳ̴̤̘̄͌s̴̟̲͚̳̉̅͝e̷̖̍̐l̵̨͇̗̘̔̍̽̋f̶̦͎̈̀̈́͊. Strange, right? You'd probably just tell me to "get the hell out of my face" before you said anything worthwhile though.

**0.81 sec**

Here we go, Five's next. Gosh, there's not enough words to express how deeply apologetic I am for the way I treated you. You're my little sister, my ONLY little sister and I still treated you like garbage because well ,̴͕͈̿͝ỵ̷͍̎́̅ő̴̢̜̩̚͝͝u̷̡̜͈͂ ̷̠̮̈́̚w̴͍̽ẽ̴̯̫͘͜r̷̪̂ě̸̢̺̼ͅ ̵̧̣̦̝̌r̷̢̧̛̘͍͛̾̅ǐ̷̧̳̺̀̽̐g̵̠̼͌͝h̴͉̽̃͠t̸̬͙͋͠.̸̨̤͎́̈́͝ ̵̪͒Ĩ̴̢̹̩̘͌̚ ̵̡̠̺̤͒̓w̶͍͝a̶̧͚͈̘̔͠s̵̡̨̒ ̸̼̳͈̪̍͑͝s̵͎͐̈̒̉ơ̶͙̪̓̈́ ̶̧̗̯̀͗̂è̶̝ņ̸̬̥͆̈́̈v̸͉̫̓͂i̴̘͌͗̾ô̶͕̳̩̘̂̅ų̶̧͎̥̂s̶̡͓͈̻̿̅̋ ̶̧͋̇̀͋o̴̖̥͚̝͆̈́̌̎f̴̬͎̜́͗̕ ̴̖̥̙̍͒́͛ỳ̴̗̮ơ̴͚̰̺̾ͅu̷̲̠͕̘͊̐͗͘.̵̪͂̎̾ Like...to an embarrassing degree. I wish I could've been more like you, confident and sexy and not caring about what anybody thinks.

**0.72 sec**

Three...I don't even know where to begin with you. All I ever did was push you away 'cause I thought you were weird, talk about pot meet kettle. I wish I was there for you as a little sister instead of treating you like an outcast, you were probably just lonely underneath it all and needed someone who understood you.̴͙̪̱̣̓͂͊̕Ï̵͙̫̰ ̵̙̙̙̊̅̐k̵̨̝̦͈̍̚n̶͚̻̺̍̒ǫ̵̼͔̑͗͒w̶̡̫͑͂̚ ̷̛̜̾͆́͜ḩ̶̟͙̎͋̿ỏ̵̢͍̆͝w̶͍̏̈́́ ̵͙̰̣̏̓t̶͈̖̎̽ḧ̴͉͕́̄ã̸͔͚̣̀̏̂ẗ̸̬́̀ ̴̳̌͌́f̷̡̓ệ̸̇͠ẽ̴͎̟̒̆̔l̶̨̤̮͆̏͛͝s̷͙̞̈̍̈́ ̷̞̣̊m̸͍͊̉͋͠o̶͔̳̘̳̒̆̈́r̶̰̔͊͆͗e̵͍͈̬͌̎ ̷̧͛̌͠t̵͇̳̝̉͝ͅḧ̴̯͖́͝à̷͔̟͎͂̾ṉ̸̛͚́ ̷̲̖̐a̸̭̅n̸̮̖̓̋̑̕͜ỳ̷͓͔͛͋͌o̵͎͈̺̐̀n̸̛̗̘͆̑̈́ë̵̦̭̲́̇̿.That's why you spent so much time with your dolls too. And now...you're destroying yourself.

**0.61 sec**

And then there were Two. Pfffftt wow! That was a super bad pun, sorry. Guess what? I bet you're expecting me to be pretty mad at you right now. You did KILL me afterall, maybe it was because you were trying to save me from crushing heartbreak? Jokes aside, I know that wasn't the real you who killed me so that's why I'm not that upset at you.

I feel more sorry for you, actually. I mean, I̸̧̦̮̹̿̾͂ ̵̡͈̼́w̵̬̦̉̐ă̷̼͇ș̵̞̻͗̾̕͜ ̵̭̌n̵̳̔͆͌͆͜è̴̖̮́v̷̧͘̚ȇ̷͈͕̫͓r̷̝͈̼̆͐̅͆͜ ̵̝͙̳̲̆̌̐a̷̡̗̺͔̍̓͠ ̴̢͈̏̊g̶̥͚̰̞̊̀́o̴̡͚̫͍͌̕͝o̵̖̬̺̠͘͘ď̶̩̩̝ ̸̢̘̪͐ͅš̴͓͍̥̘̾̊ḭ̸̱̩̑̓s̵͓͊͘͠ṫ̴̗̖̠̱̃̏̍e̴̲̯̍̅͝͝ŗ̴̩̮̔̀̇͠ ̴̧͓̜̹̉t̷̢̛̺̞̽o̵͓̞̹̪͘ ̴̯̒̽͐ͅy̶̨̧̹̐̿͑ͅo̵̲̹͋ͅŭ̶͚,̷̲̓ ̵̧͔̻̥͊͝b̴̺̟͐̑̓u̷̜͌̇͜ţ̵͚̉ ̶̤͑̎̒͝y̷̛͈͌̀̚ö̷̤́͋u̸̙͋͐̚ ̶̹̊w̴̟͈̿ē̴̹̳̂̊ŕ̶̫͈͙̿ẻ̴͔̠͔͘ ̷͍͔͐̿ą̸̞̈́́͒̅l̵̰͕̊̿̍͗w̷̧̼̠͋̑̈̀a̶̮̭̪̣̍̆̊͝ỷ̸̥̰̫̘̋̇͠ṣ̵͈͛͗ ̵͈̯̼̲͂̆k̷̥̓ì̸̧͕̫̭n̸͖̩̟̉d̶̗͉̲͎̔̅̈ ̸̨̲̦͔̑̚t̷͖̭̉̚o̵̟̗͆͋̍͝ ̸͍̟̈́̿͝m̸̙̩͆e̸͇͊ ̵̠͋̇́̆n̶͓͇̟̞̈́́͆̕ô̸͍̅ ̷̝͙̒̒̐͝m̷̘̹̐̚a̷̺̓t̵̪̱̐̒t̶͎̉͑ể̴̹̱̐r̶͖̓̐͝ ̴̧̥̤͍̈́̉̕w̴͙̺̙͊͜h̸̝͓̞͕͠a̷̱̱͂͜͝͠t̷͍̲̊͂̇͐.̴̧̯̈ When you're back to your old self, you're going to be so crushed. I wish I could tell you everything's okay, that I love y̴͓̯͚̗̌̊́̀o̷̗̫̱̔u̸͇̞̮͕̎͝ ̸̹̂̕͝à̷̡̲͍ņ̶͎̖̟̇̌͝d̶̥̙̩̯͐ ̵͎̫̂s̴̬̓ā̷̦y̸̤̗͌͊̽ ̷̪͇̼̓̓́ȃ̷̞͇͕̳͗̅l̴̡͚̎͊̀l̵̡̲̣͛͌̽ ̸̞̣͉̒͛t̴̥̞͇̎̈́̇͐ͅh̵̲̳͗͑i̷̪͂̀̓n̷̩̫̖̉̈́g̶̻͚͐͂̍s̵̲͖͍̈́͆͋ ̸̥̓̔I̴̼̫̘̟͊ ̶̪͂̓ͅn̷̯͕͇͑̃̋̏e̶̯͍͑̔̉̅v̵̭̋́ë̵̢̤̳́̍r̶̨̢͍͕͐́̀͘ ̷̫̝͇̒͒g̶̭̖͙̬͛̌́ö̸̢͚͍́̍͝t̵̖̞̆̊̎ ̸͎̓t̶̨̩̞̰͆͂͗o̵̞͈̽͂̽̂ͅ ̴̨̹͓̑t̴͉͓͋͌e̶͎̤͎͓̎͒͝͠l̷̯̗̣͛͐̅ḽ̷̨̠̎̈́̇ ̸̭͇̖̗̅y̷̻̻͖͐̆͠õ̵̖̮̍͒u̷̳̔ ̶͙̆ī̶̢̖̝̄ṅ̷͓̠̬̱̑ ̵̢̪̓̎́̒ṕ̴̮͖̙̪̆̈e̸̬̥͔͐ṙ̷̮̤s̷̭̽̍̏ỏ̶̭́̇n̶͙͓̘̱͛̆.̵͔̑̍̏̈ But as you can see...that won't be happening.

**0.50 sec**

Oh One. One. One. One. One. I'm sure you already know how much I idolized you, I killed people just so I could get your attention. Embarrassing right? Everything I did, the polite, virgin girl act I put up was just a poor imitation of the strong and smart and amazing girl you already are. Although I'm sure you have your flaws too, you're t̷̡̺̲̓͒̿̈͜h̴͇̣̊̚e̵̺̒ ̸̛̯̱́͋̈́b̵͎͐̓͐e̷͎̗͇̋̄͗s̸͉͈̥̋͗͌t̶͎̯͈̒̆͋͗ ̵̼͆ǫ̶̠̩͂͛̎f̵̫̩̦̍̎ ̷̞͗̌͝a̷̡͊̇͋l̵̢̠̺̜̀l̴̬̍ ̴͇͍̽͗o̷̙̲̻͚͐̈́̋̕f̴͇̰͖́͝ ̵̺̔u̷̮̳̯̜͘͠s̸̖̦̓̊̎.

**0.35 sec**

So yeah, here's where the hard stuff to talk about comes in. I never did properly atone for the horrible things I did to my people. Well, I kind of am now since I'm, you know, DYING and chances are I'm probably gonna be seeing a whole lot of fire pretty soon...Crap, there I go making it about me again.

Okay, I just hope that one day t̸̨̤̥̙̒̕͝h̵͖́e̶̖̾ ̴͈̈́p̴̡̡̩̅͂̓́e̸̢̘͍̪͑́o̵̫͂p̴͕̺̻̎͊l̷̨̰͓͎͝e̶̙͍̐́͒ ̴̨̛̪̩͙̅̚̕i̶͔̦͑͒͝n̸͇̝̘̑̏̂͊ ̵̳̝̱͊́ṯ̴̨̥͗͗h̶̢̻̬͂̿̑e̶̖͇̅ ̷̛̥̘̩̗̃͋̽L̷̞̼̞̞̀̒̓́ä̶͕͆̄n̷̹͉̾͛̈́d̸̩͉͙͒̈̀̇ ̵̦̥̯̑o̸̙͚̞͕͐̐f̷̧͕͝ ̴̞̮̩̘̃̆̎̈́M̴̹͉̯͙͐͊͒̈o̵̙̩̟̙͐̅u̴̳͊͐̏ͅn̵̡̜͒̓ț̴̍̍̍̕a̵̰̎̃î̴̥̱̜̬ņ̷̱̓̀͌͂s̶̺̺̃̇̈́ ̵̇̎̋͠ͅw̶̧͓̤̌ỉ̴͓̮̼l̸̫͖̜͋̓̃ͅl̴̲̂͌̾͝ ̶͖̪̀̑̍b̶̻̽ȩ̴͍̝̱̿ ̷͇͊a̸̬͋͒̐̒b̶̮̺͔́͋̀̎l̸̘̥͇͗̓͛ȩ̸̡͙̇̆̾͠ ̶̳̋̆͊t̷̝͆͊̄ó̵̗̣̜̇̽͐ ̷̤̄͑̚̕ľ̵̳ȋ̴̦͓͗̉v̴̧̠̲̎̃e̷̦̓̆̔͛ ̴͈͂̾͐f̸̡͕̞͠r̵̡̞͖͋̍e̷̲̾̽͠͝e̶̞̺̜͌l̸̢̆y̸͎̹̖͌͌͊̀ ̵̛̥̕̚͝w̷͚͝ȋ̶̝̇̐͂ṭ̸̇̏̚͠ḩ̷̞̫͖̿̔̕ò̴̜̘̹̳̑u̸̡͉̩̚t̶̮̳̘̦͆̿ ̶̭͉͕͓̊ä̵̦́͊̈͐n̸̜͕̥̑y̵̭̎̈ͅ ̵̥̻͝c̵̛̩̬͑̀̅ṛ̸̌̀͠a̴̮̽̚͝z̸̨͋̈́̕y̵̺͚͔̹͑̀͝ ̶͓̟̥̀ḏ̵͇͆̅̄͜ḯ̴͈̰͕̦̉c̶̨͖͉̋ṭ̸̨̡̀à̸̫̽̾t̸̢̘̭̽̄ŏ̶͉̘̲̄̂̚r̸͕̻̣̩̂s̴̲̺̽̒ ̸͈̝̋̉͜r̷̞̰̰̰̔͊̅ű̵̡̥͍l̴̼̗̝͌̈́̀̃i̷̙̰͕͚̐̒̊ṅ̸̫̤̝g̴͖̭̈̀ ̷̱̱̓̑͘ȏ̶̧̢͍̕v̵̦̗̜͘͜ë̸̤̲͎́ŕ̶͇̦ ̶̣̈́t̶̖͒̈́h̵͚̩̟̀̎͐e̶͈̳͎̮̋͠ṃ̵̔̈͌̔

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Since I still have some time left, might as well talk about something that's been bugging me for a while. Sometimes I wonder what the heck God was even thinking when he put me here...I can count the number of genuinely good things I did on one hand. Ơ̶̯̲͓̱̆̕h̶̬̭̔͋ ̵̙̲͍́̆̒͜w̵̨̟̫͜͝e̵̹̐̎l̶͙͕̍̋͑͠l̵̨̹͊̕.̴̖͓̓̈́͝ ̸̢͔̻̱̉T̶͙̐͌̎̽ḧ̶̢̊̏̚į̸̮̦͍͗̚s̶̛̩͚̙̣̏ ̸͇̂͒̓͌w̴̬̖̟̄͝ͅo̶̻̟̔ŗ̴͕͍̥̚l̸̪̞̹̂d̷̯̯͍͌̿ ̵̛̱͓͚̓̈́̉ḿ̵̗́u̴͔̜̭͑s̷̜͒̓̚͝t̶̤́ ̸̨̄̿̊̍ṟ̶͒͂̊e̷̡̺͌ḁ̷͔̖̾͠ͅl̴̢̮̻̓͐͂̅ͅl̷̟͓̻͚͛ȳ̶̛̻̦̔ ̸̘̦̭͠ͅś̸͓̹̔͠ư̵̬͒͂̃c̸̝͇̳̈́̃̀͠k̵̬͓̲͖̋̋͊͝ ̴͉̥̑̔ͅf̸̛͉̘̀o̴̙͂̇r̸̞̥͐͛ͅ ̷̼̅̍̚ṣ̶̥̠̋͆̏ṍ̷̳͙̙̘m̶̮͔̍̓͜ě̸̘̪͍̓ö̴͕̈́ǹ̵͎ẹ̶͙̼̄͘ ̴͔̓l̵̼̻̮͊̓̀ḯ̷̪k̶̨̺͙͉̓̚é̷͙̝̐͠ ̵̺̈m̸̺͘ė̵̼͍͓͉̅ ̵̧̌̈́̑̋t̵͓͎̿̉̐̈ȯ̷̧̤̃͒͘͜͜ ̸̥͉̀̚h̶͖̬͂͛ä̶̗v̸̨̧̈̆̐ê̷̠̇̈́ ̵̯́͊͆͆ṭ̶̝͝ḥ̵̘̍̎͆̓e̷̛̱̰̬̜̊́̚ȋ̵̲̾̓̋r̷̢̰̫̮͛̈́ ̶͈̝̒̍w̸̧̰̚ả̸͇̥̓y̵̜̽͆̈́̃ ̵̤̤̼̊̏f̵͙̗̩̟̍̌ō̷̬͈̏͛̾r̷̭̎̉͐̒ ̷͙͝s̸̱̦͆̇̊̾o̴͙̒ ̸̝̪̏̓́l̷̟̫̪̻̒o̸͍̫̱̟͊̒͗͝n̵̗̓g̷̛̮̤̞̏͐. Maybe the big guy will tell me himself if I'm lucky.

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I still haven't kicked the bucket yet? I've almost run out of things to throw myself a pity party over...uhhhhh oh right, there's still Decadus I guess. He's technically not even my disciple so I'm not contractually obligated to talk about that big oaf, but I suppose I can say a few things about him. I think I always gave him such a hard time because ̴̥͌h̶͔̉̊̂è̴͈̈̚ ̶̝̣̥̈͂r̵͖̫͖̠̔̇͐̎e̵̡̯̊̓͒͠v̵̭̺̒́̋e̴̡̢͌a̶̭͇̲̓̕l̴̰̩͎͌ͅe̶̹̮̗͌̋̈d̸̲͓͓͍̃ ̴̥̉̾t̵͉̅͜h̶͙̬͑e̶̦͈̕ ̵̡͚̑͂u̴̦̒n̵͙̦̜̅́̚͝c̶̱̮̔͑͆͠o̸͍͓͔̝͗̔m̴͉͘f̷̧̯̫͌̃o̷̯͖̹̓̓̕̚ͅr̴̲̬̜͌͛͑͘t̸̻̞̣̙͝a̸̩̫̝͛̑b̴̟͆͛l̸̲̒̒e̸͔̮͗͝ ̸̢̼̤̎͆͑̕t̷̜̣̃̈́̆̀r̵̢͉̳͑̉̑͝ư̷̦̭̥̈́́̅t̶̤͔̜̺͂h̶͕̓̈́̏ ̴̛̞̹̊̎̓͜ą̶̯̺̤̏́b̴̜͖̆ǫ̵͔̩̐u̸̟̖̔̑́t̴̖͂̔̾ ̴̢̨̔̾m̵͖̠̜̝̌e̶͙͒ ̷̢̺̘̈́͋ṱ̶̢̤̒͂̌ͅh̷͇͇̙̝͐̆̚a̸̹̿̀t̴̢̠͑̈́̃͘ ̸̡̲̙̉̐͂̅Ḯ̸̭͉̯̉͘ ̶̢͇̲͔̀ḑ̴͔̂͋e̷͙͇̋͗̏͂s̵̏̈́͑ͅp̷̛̥͓̃̉̊è̴̯̞̱͚̆̌́r̷͇̉̈͠͝å̸̢̜̖̘̆t̵̟͓̊͜ḙ̵̡̽͐ͅl̸̲̮͚̆y̷̟̤͖̓ ̵̨̰̦̣̽̑̕t̴̫̺̱̂͆͝r̶̨͓͎̪͋͊͆̏i̵̩̣͚͂͊̌̎ȩ̶̇d̷̼̓ ̸̛̥̮͎̝͛͂̈́ť̷̹͉̏o̷̰͆̄ ̴̖͕̦̟͂̽̔͋h̴̺̩̾͛͋͂͜ͅi̸͍͉̞͌ḓ̶̨̦̑̇̇ė̶̕ͅ.̵̤̳͕̖͂

Even now I'm still mortified about it, but there's no point in hiding it anymore. In truth...I s̸͉͔͍̬͛̃ē̴͓c̷̢͐̓̌r̷̘̝̥̀ę̵̙̙̯͂̾ṭ̷͂̓̊͗ĕ̸̢̦̺l̴̳̺̻͍̀̈̈́̚y̷̰̚ ̷̡̭̀̇͌̀l̷͔̻̠̔̽i̵̩̭̓̄͘ḱ̸̛͉̯͍̖̂̌e̵̝̅͘d̸͖͔̺͛̍ ̵̧̢̥̝̉͊ę̵̈̒̓͜v̸̡͍͠ȇ̷̤͓̗ŕ̶̛̯͍̼̖ÿ̸̡̩͕́ ̵̩̬̀͆̋͝p̷̧̻̫̦̓̈́̑́ä̸͍̞̮́r̶̬̻̹͎̀ẗ̷̟́̏ ̷̖̖͛o̷̥̹̯͛̆f̶̟̲̺̪́ ̸͉̖̭́̋̿͊h̸͖̹̱̺͋ì̷͖̗͖̽m̵͍͈͓̜͗̈́̊͝ ̵̼̭͎̿b̷̛̜̞̞̭̾͝e̴̢̮͍̋͋ç̵̧̰̫̉̚a̷͉̫̲̥̓́͝ư̵̥̄̄͂s̸̛̞̼͙̫̀̾͠ē̵̪͗̒ ̵͈͉̪̿h̷̡̡̚e̴͙̣̫͊̈́ ̵̤͕̥̤̀͠l̵̜͍͚̿̆͠ï̶̭͈̂̓k̵̢̇ē̸̺ḏ̵͎̾ ̷͍͔͑̕è̴̹̜͙͇͂̏̓v̵̜̠̏͛͌͒e̶̛̹̳͌̍̕r̷̤͖̆͒̂y̷̪͂́͛͝ ̷̭̀̈p̵̛̱̿́̚͜a̷̰̰̲̎́̽r̶̞̫̻̙̐̐t̴̯͙̄̈ ̷͇͉̪͈̇̊̽͘õ̶͙̫͒͑f̵͍͇̉̀ ̵̢͚̖͑͘͝m̶̠̱̺̑̉e̷͓̓ͅ ̶͇͛ͅ...the good and the bad.

OH YEAH! And since I'm on the topic of disciples one giant FUCK YOU to Dito. I know you're getting a kick out this right now. Don't worry, I'm gonna be kicking your ass real soon.

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Yep, I'm definitely feeling my brain going dead. Life REALLY does flash right before your eyes, huh? Woooooow. Oh I'm not avoiding talking about anything right now and trying to stall for time until I can finally die. Nope not gonna talk about Riku. Damn it. Ugh, I hate to get all lovey-dovey on you right now 'cause it's kind of pathetic and you would definitely tell me "I just wanna be friends" if I were still alive, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

Riku...m̸͓̺͇̮̼̉̿͆̌ŷ̵̥͚͇͚̰ ̶̞̓̓̈́l̸̨̰̻̞̊̑̓̚i̴̬͚͑f̴͖́̀̚e̷̳̠͊̌̌̽͝ͅ ̴̳̪̪͙̮̓̿̒ċ̵̤̂h̷͙͒̌͗́̈́ắ̵̧̱͙̩ͅñ̴̞̝͋g̷̖̱̿͛̈́̀̕e̷̐͜͜d̶̪͈̓̄͘͜ ̶̢̗͚̰͔̓̽̄͆̈́s̷̱̪̒̋͘ó̸̪̹̦͉̽̿̽̕ ̷̲̽̅̿m̴̹̙̟̬̑͋̌͑͠u̸͓͝c̸̠̘̑̚h̴̭͈̤̑̔̊ ̸̧̝̩͓͐̄̅b̷̘̳̫̤́̒͝ĕ̴͕̪͕͝ċ̸̼̹̊̆̚͘ā̶̘͊̇̒͐ǘ̸̙͂̍s̶̬̊͑̋͘ẻ̶̢̹̦̩̜̎ ̶̨̢̛̜͐͒I̷̝̼̫̒̅ ̶̹̖͓͕̿ͅṁ̶̩ȩ̶̣͖̄̌̐t̶͉̬̓̔͝ ̷̥͍͉̔͒̔y̸̛̪̞̞̙̠͆̊́o̴͔͈͇͍͈̓̿̊͑͝u̴͕͜͠.̷̖̺̳̪̃͜ ̶̨̲͚̞̫͌Y̷̘̰̾͗̚ǫ̶̱͉̣̼̓ù̵̳̠͋ ̸̪̠́̍͜s̶͚̩̜̅͐̏ȃ̷͇͖̔͋̅͜͝w̶̝̗̖̹̔̆͒͐͝ ̶͎͊͋̅̈́͒ͅt̸͎͌̈̀̄h̴̢̞͕̦̻̅̽̂r̴̨̮̜͗o̵̦̦̭͊́͜͝ư̶̮̹̠̳̻̏̾̂͑ǧ̴̖̝̬̆̒̑h̸̛̭͍̫̒̉͛ͅͅ ̷̧͔̰̹̝̅̿͘͝t̴̫̺̫̑̐h̸̛̞͕̖͍̼͑̾ë̵̲̱́̓͋͘ ̷̢̢̟̰͂̿͑̀͐m̵̹̜͉̈ò̴̳͈̰͋̐͠͝ǹ̵͈͚̽̅̕s̴̛͚͔̰̏̎͑t̷̮͎̖͎̥͂̎͐̚e̶̥̺̤̩̋̀͋͌̚ͅr̵̼̗̳̊ ̴͚̯̮̞̣̋̓Ȉ̵̺̗̪̐ ̸̺̤̿̆͋̉͝ͅw̸̮̙͚̯̔̚͜a̶̱̟̿̕͝s̷̯͓͙̅͑̑́̓ ̶͓̥̻̱̣̆͒ą̷̻̈͜ṇ̶̡͚̿̉͐͒d̷̡̘̥̻̦̾ ̷͇̈́̈́͒f̵̰̃̊ơ̸̫͙͈̒͗͗͠u̴̘͎̮͂͘͝n̴̢̼̰̤̚d̵̝͖͚̹̞͊̎͝ ̷̘̃̐͒ị̶̬͙̿͠t̸̮̑ ̵̲͆̾̒i̴̪̅̊̂͛̂n̴̖̼̙͚̳̑̏̉̃̂ ̷̡̤͉̀̄͜͝y̴̻̼͆̌́̒̓ͅo̵̼̟̎̑̄̅̀ṳ̵̧͚̖͓̎͛r̵̺̜͍͓̆̇̾̚ ̶̮͕̔͝h̴̹͓̆̽͗̊̀e̷̖̱̺̿̊ă̵̡̙̋̿̌͘ŕ̸͕̗̙̳̎t̵̢̬̺̥͒̉̂̃ ̸͉̹͒̅͘t̴̫̘̳̺͕́̂̌͗ō̶͚̝̝̬͖ ̴̧̮̣͉͓̒̃̅͠s̴̟̒ḁ̷̧́̐͌ṽ̸͓̬̺̟̗e̷̡̖͉̪̳̍̍̌͑̇ ̷̜̟͙͚̟͛m̴̤͉̝͆͆̍̓͗e̸̛̫̙͖̰̽͝.̷̢̞̣̌̀̍ ̵͚̖̼̟͛͊͐ ̷̘͈͝Ÿ̷̹̘̱̤́̂̑́o̶̩̥͇̤̦̓u̷̜͒̇͋ ̶͈̫̮̌̆͗͠ṯ̸̿ạ̷̊͗́͘͝u̴̲̙͂̀͊͐̓g̶̤̼̥̈́̈́̓͘h̶̝̻̺̿̑̀t̷̗̱̐ ̸̧͓͒̾m̵̢͇̯̮̂ȩ̸̫̐͌̓͝ ̴̡͐͋h̸͖̼̜̩̹̏̃͒̆̏ǫ̶̦͓̥̏͘w̷̖̼͐̇͜ ̷̨̺̲̜́p̴̤̈́̽͂͛͑ŕ̶͙̤̱͎̎e̷̛̤̖͈͗̾̐c̸̝̞̭̉̑̒̅í̵̜̦͝o̸̗̫̊͘͝ȕ̶̱͍̓̋͋s̷̢̠͊̏̑ ̴͚̱̬͈̉̉͂̈̕l̶̥͉̮̔̽i̴̩̙̾f̷̜̅̀͒é̵̗̔̑̕̚ ̶̰͚̿͂̈́̇̓w̷̡̧̛̭̞̖̓̐͒á̶̡͙̫͙͇̈́̋s̴͈̳̺̳͛͑̀͐ͅ ̷̘͈̿́̉i̵̦̽̎̒̕n̶̬͑̏ ̸̦͚͇̝̅ͅt̴͚̳̫̳̟͊͌͝h̸̨̡̟̗̟̽ḯ̶̱̩͙̤̱̐s̸̛͔̼͒̅̑ ̴͓̜̻̥̿̚w̵̧̪̮̩̖͗̅͊̉ȍ̷͈̩̒̊̀͌ͅŗ̵̝̟̃̊̑̊l̸̩͍̭̪͎̍̆͠ḓ̴̫̜̻̠̀̈ ̵͙̬͗̆͝ȁ̷͚̱̐n̸̨͉͉͙͉̋̀́̕d̷͖̺̫̀̾͘ ̷̬͔̲̮̉͆̃̿̕I̸͇̺͈̔́̐ ̵̧̛͕̪̳̈́͂̿s̶̯̘̙͋̓̚ë̶̼̦̚ŕ̸͍̩͎ͅi̴̘͂̀́͗̚o̸̖̦͖͛̒̄̃̏u̷͕̖͙͙͛̂̈́ś̶̼͈̱̫͗l̷̢̳̼̺̻̅̉̽͝y̷̮͙̋̇ ̴̹̻͖͛̅̒͝c̸̡̜̅̔̊́̈á̶̫̣̉̍n̷̠̿ͅ'̷̨̰̗̦̀̊̿̉͛t̷̬̰̲̫̼͗̊́̇̕ ̷͚̍͂̒̄̑t̶̡̨̨͍͖̀h̵͓̙͗̽̋̚ͅẵ̶̐̚͜n̶̻̰̅̀̑̌̓k̵͖̗̥͆͛ ̵̳̻͙̾y̸̳͛̒͐ǫ̴̝̣͈̗̉u̶͈͖̲̍ ̶̢̈̌è̶̩͕̖̬̙̌n̶̫͒̐́̒͌o̷̧̰͈͊͒u̶̫͐̍̌̉g̶̘̪̘̙̋͜ḩ̷̧̼̳̀ ̵̳͍͓͉̙̈̚f̶̮̬͒o̴̢̦̳̣͖͗̑͐̄͊r̴̛̠̥̤͕̐̾ ̷̭̀̑̑̍̕͜ț̶̳̪̒̿̍͒h̸̯̑̓͛͐ḁ̶́̐͆̾t̸̜͉̣̬͑̾̋̉.̸̜̩͔̓ ̷͖͂̾̾̇̊I̴̭͚̟̠̲͋͊͒͊t̷̢͇͎͗͆'̴̬̤͉̐̀͂̇͝s̸̜͆ ̵̳͇̫̪̫͐͛f̴̯̿u̸̘̹̻̎̈n̴͚͚̳͓̅̓̍̕͜n̴̰̾͗̇͐͌y̸͍̼̯̝̒,̴͚͓̺̪͗̌̊ ̷̨̧̭̐t̴͚͓̳̰͆͛̓̅̈h̵̗͔͙̰̼̋̀͑e̸͎̔̈́͆ř̷͈̮̤͖è̶̢̩̬̅̈́͊ ̷̡̯̱̥͂̽̎͘w̴͎̦̔̐̍̃ā̵̻̯̦̜͉ş̷̘̬͋̅͐̿͜ ̶̢̬̟̦̓ͅń̵̩͜o̷̼̻̖͓̅t̶̻̟̰͐ͅh̸̻̏̅͐͝i̵̪͑̈̀̿͛ņ̵͖͈̩̮͗́͐̽͒g̶̱̦̓͊̿͒ ̸̢͙̾̿́͑͝I̷̢͉̮͚̹̚ ̶͓͋̆̓͊͠ț̴̨͆̉̅͗r̵͚͖̪̍́̋̈u̴̧̺̬̕l̸̗̻̹̅y̷̧̘͓̳̆̾̎ ̴̢̭̱͕͗̆͑́̕w̵̳͛́ą̵͖̟͍̩̓̐̋̀n̵̢̼̺͖͊́̚̚̕t̸̙̀̓̈́́e̴̢̙̩̅͗͂͌̕ḑ̶͓̫͂͌ ̷̖̤̳̟̥̊̀́̌t̵̙͔̭̳͉̓̑̈́o̷̬̐̃̃̿̀ ̴͙͙̪̣̇l̴̤̊̿į̶͝v̴̗̥̜̊e̵̡͗̅͝ ̴̪͍̟͓̜͂̇̕f̴͉̤͍͙̠̐̾̾͘ỏ̴̢͇r̸̡̀͂͒͛ ̵̹͇̺̯̔̉̃u̶̡̱͉͇͈͌͝n̴̙̒t̸̡̜̀̀́̿̚i̶̹̙͐͂̃͑l̷͈̤͗ ̷̫̳̱͋̿̍̕Ḯ̸̙͖͗̋̐̂ ̷̮̹̱̬̆̓̀̋m̷̠͓̚ē̵͓̗͓̺̓̉͌͗t̸͔͖̲͕͚̽̊͂̽̑ ̸̰͈̈̿y̴̲̹̥̫̽̉͠ò̶̧͙̯̱̇̎́̍ư̴̦̙̰̽̒͘͠ ̷̟̽̇̚ạ̶̺̠̔n̴̡̧͙̝͆d̸͇̜̔ ̶̬̩̻̱̈́ņ̸͕̼͎̎ͅö̴̘͚͎́w̸̬̮̜̖̒̐͊̂ͅ ̷͍͇̃̐̊̔ì̶̬͑͋t̵̝̼̓̈́̚'̸͓̥͇͇́̊̕ś̵̤͛ ̴̤͚͉̍̓̕͝͝ḁ̷̓̕l̶̨̫̰͉̬̃̔͋l̴͉͇̔͌̋͠ ̷̢̢̋̊̆̾a̴̛̒ͅb̵͇̖̓̆̈̈́͑o̴̫̞͖̪̱͂ŭ̵͓̤̬̖͒̌̾̑t̵̢̬͗ ̵̙̠̠͆ṱ̷̨̥͎͐͒ͅó̴̧̫͈̘̲ ̶͉͌́͒͆͝g̷̨̥͑͑̾̽ë̶̝̤̝̜́̽t̸̝̾́͘ ̶̣̦̙̾̍̍̈͝ͅt̸̞̮̄ͅă̶̟̼̱̲̏͘k̴̢̰͚̟̃̈́͌ë̵̫͇͈̹́͛̓̈́̚ṇ̴̣̹͙̾̅̀̒̂ ̴̢̦͂ä̴̙̗̠̖͈́̋w̷͉̰͌͜a̶̧̟͔͖̒͊͗̂y̵̻͓͒̈́̇ ̶̘͚͙̮̻̿̓̚f̶̪̥͎̔̈́r̴̛͇̠͜ő̴̡̟̱̄͠m̸̡̫̫͊͋̈́̇̇ͅ ̶̤̱̭̋̈́͠͠͝m̵̖͐ȩ̵̭͙̝͊̍̋͑͘͜.̴̤̂̽͠͠͠ ̸̣̑̓͠S̶̢̫͎͂ơ̷̲̟̳̤͇̌̃̈ ̷̻̽͌̚f̸̩̠̈́r̸̛͍̗̱͆͑̇̐o̴̬̅̊͂̓m̸͇̜̤̹͛̍͗ ̸̲̈͊̿͑t̷̨͉͔̲̬͌̈́͐h̴̯͉͇̠̀͐́̒̋ͅe̶̯͌̎̆́ ̶̲̌̾͂̑͠ḇ̸̧̝̰͎̋o̷̳͛͊̇̌ṭ̸̽̓̑ͅt̷͎͔̥̙͐͊̌ͅö̴̹̜̭̙́̽m̴̭͎̓ ̵͕̖̼̋́̓̐͠ö̴̖̜́f̶͖͍̌̈́̎̃ ̵̧͓̼̉́̃m̸̳̋y̶̡̨̤̅ ̶̛̯̩͉̲̼̓́͝e̶̖̳̫̿̒́̓͝m̸̭͋̈́̽̕p̴͙̱͚̊͝t̴͚̖̪̘̲͛̀͆ẏ̵̢̢̪̤̹́ ̴̨͍̯̃̈́͂̐̔h̶̲̠̮̪̟̍̆̄ȇ̵̙͌̂̀ȧ̸̖̠̣̦͒̽͊r̷̫͉͒̎̆t̶̮̣͈̽̔̋.̴̗͚̠̔̂̓͝.̴̠͓̼͚͐͆́̅͝.̴̢̰̞̓͝ͅ

I̴̲͆̚ͅ . . . ████████████████████████████████████████████████████

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Fortunately, everyone managed to safely get out of the shrine. However, Decadus was anything but relieved, the loss of Four affected him in a way he couldn't even describe. For once, the pain and sadness he once took so much pleasure from felt real to him now. "I...I can't believe I failed to save her not once, but twice."

"Hey, look at it this way, I would've killed her a lot sooner if it wasn't for Riku," Zero said.

"Th- That's what pains my heart the most."

 _'Shit, I think I made it worse. Better just change the subject.'_ She awkwardly rubbed the back of her head. "Um...well anyways, we should start heading to wherever Two and Three went. Any guesses where that would be?"

"The Land of Sands most likely. It's quite a ways from our current location, but we'll be able to make it there on foot. Although it'll be around a week's journey so who knows what ruin those two will bring by then," Octa said.

"A week?! Goddamnit, this is gonna take forever! That dummy just had to go and get kidnapped by them!"

"You're telling me," Dito grumbled.

"Worry not, I'll make this voyage a most pleasurable one for you, Lady Zero~"

"Yeah, no. Let's just set up camp for today and figure the rest out tomorrow. Decadus, you carry Riku from now on."

Between Four's untimely death and the looming threat of the heartless, it was a depressing atmosphere to say the least. Especially without Mikhail's cheerful attitude to lighten the mood. Luckily, on their way to finding a suitable campsite, Riku finally woke up from his unconscious state.

"Wh...what's going on?" Riku muttered.

Decadus set him down. "Riku, you're finally awake. Are you well?"

"Yeah, for the most part. What happened?"

"While you were knocked out we were getting fucked in the ass by heartless. Thanks for that by the way," Zero said

"I'm sorry? Wait, where's Four? My memory's kind of hazy right now but I remember-"

"Lady Four w...went with her sisters. She's okay, don't worry about her, just focus on fighting the heartless," Decadus said.

"Really? That's a relief, I thought she was...nevermind. So what's the plan now, we need to find Mikhail, right?"

Zero glanced back at Decadus, who avoided her gaze. ' _It's not a good idea to keep it from him, but I guess he has his reasons.'_ "...Yep, according to Octa, Two and Three took him to the Land of Sands, which is a week away. At least that gives us plenty of time to work on your Intoner powers."

"Intoner powers?"

"You're basically an Intoner now since you have the Flower so you might as well use the power of song."

"That's not gonna happen."

"Why? It makes you invulnerable to attacks and increases your power. You'd be an idiot not to take advantage of it."

"I don't care, there's no way I'm singing. I'll just tough it out."

She chuckled. "What, are you embarrassed? Don't worry, I won't laugh in your face."

"Like I'd fall for that."

"Forget the singing, you aren't gonna try to make one of us your disciples now that you're an Intoner, are you?" Dito asked, clearly just to provoke him.

"You want me to knock you out?"

"He kind of has a point though. You gotta be pretty damn horny all the time and you're gonna need _someone_ to keep you in check," Zero said.

"And what young man wouldn't want their afternoon delight every once in a while? Though it's more of an around-the-clock delight for me ho ho ho!" Octa said.

After all of their teasing, Riku's face was beet red. "Shut up! Can we stop talking about this?!"

"Alright, wouldn't want you accidentally summoning your keyblade on us," Zero slipped in.

"Now's not the time to be goofing off. We need to stay vigilant," Decadus said.

"Relax, we'll just set up camp here."

"Then I'll start the fire."

When Decadus disappeared into the woods, Riku turned to Zero. "Something's up with him, he's acting weirder than usual. I feel like I missed so much while I was out..."

"Don't worry about him, just try to get some sleep tonight. We have a shit ton of walking to do tomorrow."

"Hold on...I need you to talk to you about something first."

"Fine."

They walked a little ways from the campsite to a secluded area.

Zero crossed her arms. "Well?"

"It's about the Flower, I need you to tell me everything you know about it."

"Maybe I'll consider telling you if you learn the power of song."

"Zero, I'm serious, this is important! We're both trying to stop this thing, remember?"

"I know, that's why I'm trying not to get you killed for once! Can't you just fucking trust me on this one?"

"...Forget it. I'll figure this out on my own."

She pressed her lips together, deciding against trying to convince because she knew it would be a losing battle. ' _Guess I can't be too pissed off about him not trusting me. I had this coming.'_

Just as they were about to leave, they heard an eerie wail coming from the backwoods.

"̸G̸I̷V̷E̸.̴.̶.̵M̷E̷.̷.̷.̷H̴I̵M̷.̸"̶

"What was that? It sounded like someone's voice..." Riku said.

"It's probably just Decadus. Let's head back."

When they returned to the campsite, the fire was already started. While Dito and Octa were busy playing cards, Decadus was staring at a piece of paper in his hands.

"What's that?" Riku asked, walking up to him.

He quickly shoved it back into his pocket. "It's nothing."

"You're worried about Four, aren't you? Don't sweat it, we'll see her soon."

"...Right."

"Why do you even give a crap about her when she was just brainwashing you to like her?" Dito asked.

"Give it a rest Dito," Octa cautioned.

He set his cards down. "No, this whole woe is me bullshit is starting to piss me off. When are you going to stop pretending Four was this perfect little saint? In case you forgot, she treated you like shit and was a psychopath up until like a week ago."

Decadus let out a heavy sigh. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I understand you had a poor relationship with your past Intoner, but you shouldn't misplace your frustrations onto me."

"Except this isn't about that slut, it's about Four. You're all depressed and shit for someone who tried to let us die how many times? Nothing gets through that thick maso brain of yours though, does it?"

Usually, he would've taken pleasure at Dito's ridicule, but the only thing that was rising within him was anger. "H-How dare you! That's enough from you!"

"Calm down, Dito's just being a jerk like usual," Riku said.

"I don't care, I'm sick of him always dragging Lady Four's name when he's the most despicable person here!"

"Yeah I know and so was Four, but I don't try to hide it. Go ahead and keep defending her like an idiot though, sure she'll drag herself out of hell to give you a pat on the back or whatever you want."

"Wait, what're you talking about? So something did happen to Four?" Riku asked.

"Man, hate to be that guy, but Four died a _while_ ago. Heh, I mean it's actually pretty ironic, she let her heartless eat people so it's only fitting the same-"

All of the emotions Decadus kept bottled up exploded out and he over marched to Dito with the intent to pummel him, but Octa quickly intervened.

"Get out of my way!"

"Stop this, Decadus! Now is not the time to shed blood! Isn't that right, malady?"

"They should just fight it out."

"Lady Zero, you're not helping the situation!"

She shrugged. "Maybe don't piss off the guy who's into BDSM."

"Uh- don't listen to her! Remember, we have an important mission at hand and we can't risk losing another member of our team."

"Nothing of value would be lost if he were gone!"

"Yeah right back at ya big guy!" Dito shot back.

It looked like a fight would break out any moment between the two, but their attention was taken away from each other when an abnormal gust of wind blew the fire out. What followed next were dozens of creepy yellow eyes that lit up all around them, illuminating the black forest.

"Here we go with this shit again," Zero said.

Knowing what was about to follow, everyone readied their weapons, but it was so dark they could hardly see the enemy that was attacking them. Instead of aimlessly taking shots in the dark, Riku cast a Fire spell in the encompassing area and it spread rapidly. The smoky, orange glow from the fire revealed the power and sniperwild heartless that were hiding in the trees.

Now that they were all identified, it was only a matter of time before Riku destroyed them. As soon as they were out of the way, he turned back to Decadus and Dito. "So...Four is really dead? What happened to her?!"

"Ohh, you're not gonna like this one," Dito said.

"Don't mess with me! Just tell me what happened to her already!"

Before Dito could answer, they heard that same eerie wail from earlier crying out to them.

"̸G̸I̷V̷E̸.̴.̶.̵M̷E̷.̷.̷.̷H̴I̵M̷.̸"̶

"̵I̵ ̶N̴E̷E̴D̷ ̵H̵I̵M̸.̴"̶

"̶I̵ ̴W̸A̴N̶T̵ ̴H̵I̶M̷.̷"̴

"What the hell is it this time?!"

At long last, a creature in tattered black clothing emerged from the shadows. Its proportions were no different than that of a regular human, but that was their similarities ended. Its bright yellow eyes were unmistakably heartless, while the rest of its appearance resembled a typical witch, from the torn black dress to the large pointy hat.

With just a glance, Riku knew exactly who it was that stood before him. "So...this is what happened to you, Four."

**FOUR'S HEARTLESS: 𝐸𝓂𝑒𝓇𝒶𝓁𝒹**

Decadus sunk down to his hands and knees from seeing the monster she'd become. "No...Lady Four...how could it end like this?!"

Emerald pointed its scaly fingers at Riku. "̶I̷ ̴W̸A̵N̶T̵ ̴Y̶O̵U̵.̵"̶

Riku squeezed the handle of his keyblade so tight that his knuckles were white, then he reeled his arm back and swung at her with everything he had. Nothing else mattered because she was a heartless now and he was the keyblade wielder who would free her heart. He couldn't think about it any further than that if he wanted to save her.

"̸S̵T̸O̴P̴ ̴T̸H̶I̴S̷.̵.̵.̷"

Despite Emerald being nothing more than a manifestation of darkness, it still managed to retain Four's innermost desires. No matter how many times he slashed at the heartless, it never retaliated against him.

"̵W̸H̶Y̴ ̷H̵U̵R̸T̷ ̶M̵E̶?̷ ̸I̵ ̷L̵O̶V̵E̴ ̶Y̷O̶U̶.̸"̸

"̶Y̸O̸U̸ ̴L̶O̵V̵E̵ ̸M̶E̴ ̵D̴O̴N̸'̴T̴ ̸Y̶O̵U̵?̷"̷

"SHUT UP!" Riku screamed.

Since Emerald was solely focused on Riku, it didn't notice when Zero snuck up and stabbed it from behind. "Octa, Dito, stop sitting on your asses and DO something already!"

"Apologies, Lady Zero!"

"Yeah, yeah, we're coming."

While it was briefly stunned, Dito and Octa came in next, Dito impaled its chest without any hassle, then Octa hurled his chakram at its head. Finally, Riku finished it off with a Firaga spell that engulfed Emerald in flames.

"̴H̵A̸.̸.̸.̸H̴A̸.̷.̶.̴H̸A̷ ̸H̴A̵ ̷H̶A̵H̷ ̵A̶H̵H̶A̴H̵A̸H̶A̶H̴A̸H̷A̴H̴A̷.̸"̷ Its cackling was all the more bone-chilling since it was on fire, all of its clothes and hair burned off but it was still howling with laughter.

"̸H̶A̸ ̶H̷A̴.̸.̴.̴"̴

"̶A̷F̷T̷E̸R̴ ̷E̷V̵E̷R̸Y̸T̶H̵I̷N̷G̸ ̴Y̷O̴U̵ ̸S̴T̵I̷L̷L̸ ̴D̵O̶N̵'̴T̸ ̶L̴O̸V̷E̸ ̶M̶E̷?̷"̷

**"̸T̷H̵E̴N̸ ̸I̶.̵.̴.̶I̷ ̵W̸I̸L̷L̷ ̸M̸A̴K̷E̷ ̴Y̶O̸U̶ ̶L̶O̷V̸E̸ ̷M̶E̷!̸"̷**

Emerald cast a powerful Aeroza spell and everyone was swept up by the whipping winds. Even worse, the fire consumed the excess air and spread out to cover a wide swathe of the forest so everything started to burn in a wild blaze. Once the winds calmed down, everyone was left strewn across the burning forest. After previously staying out of the encounter, Decadus was the first one to get up and approach Emerald.

"Please...Lady Four...I beg of you to stop this madness! I...I can't bear to see you suffer like this any longer!"

A ball of fire formed in Emerald's hand. "̷O̸U̷T̶ ̸O̵F̸ ̸T̶H̷E̷ ̵W̵A̸Y̸!̷"̶

 **"** -Decadus!" Riku rushed over to him, blocking the incoming fireball.

"I...I apologize Riku, I hardly deserve to be saved by you after I kept the truth from you for so long." He clenched his fists together. "To think, this whole mess could've been avoided if I wasn't such a coward!"

 **"** Don't worry about that! You want to save her, don't you? Then you need to stand up and fight! That's what she'd want..."

"You're right...it's the least I can do to honor Lady Four!"

"̴S̷I̴L̵E̵N̶C̶E̶!̸"̷ Emerald summoned a long, metal broomstick then tried to swing it down on them, but Decadus caught the handle in his hand.

"Riku, I can handle this one, it'd be best if you could do something about all of this fire."

"Right."

Decadus yanked the broomstick handle close to him so he could land a clean hit on Emerald and force it into a string of his attacks. In the meantime, Riku cast a Waterga spell to extinguish the fire. By sheer luck, Water just so happened to be the element that Emerald was weak against, one drop of it and the heartless screeched in pain so Riku built up a devastating Waterza attack that flooded the entire area and doused the bewitching heartless.

Dripping wet with water, Emerald's body started to melt away.

̷"̸N̶O̶!̵"̵

"̶I̶ ̴L̴O̵V̸E̸D̴ ̵Y̴O̶U̴.̷.̷.̶H̶O̴W̶ ̶C̸O̵U̸L̶D̵ ̵Y̴O̸U̸ ̴D̴O̶ ̵T̴H̶I̵S̷ ̶T̴O̴ ̶M̴E̶E̸E̷E̶E̵E̶E̶E̶E̸E̴E̴E̶!̴"̶

With the darkness gone, all that remained was Four's lifeless body on the ground. Decadus picked her up and held her in his arms one last time. "Despite her past actions I know she would've done so much good for this world...I could see that in her ever since you saved her."

Riku watched as her body slowly faded away. He felt so numb from it all that he couldn't even muster up any words to say.

Decadus took off his glasses for a moment to rub his eyes, then he handed the paper he was staring at earlier to Riku. "It's her old wanted poster. The only reason she got this far was because of you. You've brought so much kindness into this world...don't ever stop doing this and I'll always follow you."

Riku held the crumpled paper in his hands, staring at the crude drawing. It wasn't too long ago when she was complaining about it and now it was the only thing they had left to remember her by. He had to put it away because small droplets started to appear and he didn't want to mess it up any further.

"...I won't give up," Riku finally said.

Zero and the others joined them soon afterwards.

"Come on you two, we should relocate," She said.

"Yeah...that's a good idea." Riku stood up and faced Zero. "I...changed my mind. Please teach me the Intoner's song."

She smirked. "Alright, then let's give this world hell."

_Although the Fourth Intoner was gone,_

_In the eyes of the Keyblade Wielder, all was not lost._

_He would learn the Intoner's song,_

_And keep the world from falling into darkness._

_Alas...if only happy endings came so easily._

**Flowers for the Dead**

* * *

Artwork dump of sketches I will never finish:

Three's current appearance

Riku and Zero comic

Emerald concept AKA the Wicked Witch of the Mountains

Finally, Way to Dawn Black Flower edition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all had a great holiday and a happy new year! Thank you so much again for reading this story and staying with me, you guys are all amazing ^_^


	15. "A Tale of Two Intoners"

On their way to the Land of Sands, Zero set aside some time to help Riku learn the power of song.

"Ready?" She asked.

"Yeah let's get this over with. So what do I have to do?"

"All you have to do is sing something, it's not that hard."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, whatever you want."

"It's that simple? But it sounds like you put a lot of thought into it whenever you sing."

"I make it all up on the spot. Just try something out, I doubt the Flower gives a shit."

"..."

Zero tapped her foot on the ground. "Well? What're you waiting for? We don't have all day."

He sighed. "Okay fine. Here goes..."

**Verse ?**

_I'M RiIIiiIiiIKUUUUU_

_i'M a kEyybladE WieeeeLLLEeEelderrrr_

_I Fiiiiiiiiiiight Heeeeeartlessss_

_Yeah yeah yeah Woooooooooo!_

"..."

"..."

After Riku's abysmal singing, there was a long, awkward pause as Zero tried to come up with something to say that wouldn't completely crush his spirits. "You sounded like a dying goat." She finally settled on.

Riku's face started to turn red. "So it was that bad..."

"Yeah, but all that matters is if your 'song' actually worked or not. So do you feel any different?"

"Not really."

"And you're not glowing either. Maybe it's not activating because you haven't fought anything, we'll try it out again when we face some enemies."

"What? There's no way I'm doing that. It's bad enough singing in front of you, now you want me to do it with the others around? Maybe I'm just not ready for it now, I'll try it again some other time."

"Whatever, since you wanna be a pussy about it." She turned to leave.

"Hold on, we still have a deal so you need to hold up your end of the bargain too. Tell me about the Flower."

"Like what?"

"Like...where did it come from?"

She shrugged. "Don't know, I just saw it one day and I've had it with me ever since."

"You think there's a source where the Flower originated from?"

"Who knows. You, myself, and the rest of the Intoners are the only ones who have the damn thing as far as I know."

"...You're not good at explaining things, are you?"

"You're the one who keeps asking these stupid questions. Are we done here?"

He thought for a moment. "Not yet. I just want you to confirm something...I already know you're immortal so I'm guessing your sisters are too...at least when they still have their Intoner powers."

"Pretty much. What's your point?"

"Immortality's pretty hard to beat. Which means you have something that can destroy the Flower, don't you?"

"You figured it out? Guess you're not as dumb as I thought." Zero pulled out her sword, then held it out in front of him. "Only dragons have the power to destroy the Flower for good so my sword is made out of the bones of a dragon."

As he further studied Zero's sword, Riku's eyes lit up. "That's it! I...think I have an idea to stop the Flower. I can forge a keyblade made out of Mikhail's claws. That should count as bones of a dragon."

"How would that be any different from the sword I use?"

"My keyblade has an ability that lets me dive into an Intoner's heart where I can fight the Flower. That's how I saved Four- by sealing her own powers...I thought I weakened it myself too, but if what you're saying is true, then I didn't really do anything to it..." He looked back up to Zero to see if she was following along, but she looked like she was out of it already. "You still with me there?"

"Yep." She lied.

"...Basically, if my keyblade has dragon powers then it should be just what I need to seal the Flower and keep it from leeching itself onto me like before."

"What about you?"

"Huh?"

"Let's say all of this shit actually works, how are you going to get rid of the Flower inside of you?"

"Eh, I'm not really worried about myself right now. I'll figure something out when I save the rest of you guys."

The way Riku was so willing to bear the burden of taking the Flower down, all without losing another life along the way, sounded downright foolish to Zero. And yet at the time, it was hard not to get swept up by his blind idealism. It meant that despite everything, apart of her wanted to believe in him, even if she knew that a future like that was unattainable.

Still, ever the cynic, Zero dismissed the very idea. "Doubt that'll ever work. Something's bound to fuck up along the way and we'll be back to plan 'kill everyone'."

"Then I'll just have to prove you wrong so that doesn't happen, but thanks for even thinking about me..." He smiled at her. "That's unlike you."

"Tch, you a fucking pansy now? Don't get all sentimental on me."

 _'Geez, why are girls like her always so friggin' intense?'_ "Anyways, I'll need all the help I can get so I guess I could also try working on the Intoner's song more."

"Heh, that's more like it."

* * *

**One Week Later**

After Two's heart was corrupted by the darkness, Three found her to be of particular interest. For starters, she retained most of her traits from her former self; she cooked, was loving to Cent and was always cheerful, but behind that fake smile of hers hid a deeply twisted heart. That part about Two confused Three the most, although she had a heart devoid of emotion, she indulged herself as if she did. Three hypothesized many reasons as to why, flawed experiment perhaps? Or maybe she was mentally unstable. Whatever the reason, Two was wholly unpredictable to her in that regard.

However, today was a departure from the usual status quo that Two maintained where she had no qualms revealing how truly sinister she was. The day started out fairly normal, it was lunchtime and Two assumed her role of cook, Cent was waiting patiently at the dining table conversing with his lover, not expecting Three to join them at the table.

"I'm surprised you dragged yourself out of the basement today, Three. To what do we owe the pleasure?" Cent asked.

"Hungry. Need food."

"Ah, and I was just getting used to the malnourished look," He said jokingly, but Three wasn't the least bit amused. Rather than continue to sit in awkward silence, he changed the subject to one she would be more interested in. "So Three, any success with our dragon friend?"

"Not yet."

"Huh, really? It's been a whole week already. Maybe you haven't noticed, but he's been stinking up the shrine soooo..."

"So what?"

"If he's not going to be of any use to us then, uh..." He drummed his fingers on the table. "You know what I always say, the only good dragon's a dead one."

Two served out plates of sweet and sour ogre meatballs for everyone. "Oooh someone's a little murderous today, I know you're worried about Zero and her friend coming but Three's got something big planned for the dragon!" She turned to Three who was stabbing her meatballs with a fork. "I had a feeling you'd be joining us today, so I made yours extra soft because I know you don't like chewing the tough ogre meat."

"Thanks."

"Excuse me, but how come this is the first I've heard of this 'plan'?" Cent asked.

Three shrugged. "Forgot."

"Just like how you 'forgot' to close the gates and let all of those sandwolves trash the main hall?"

"Not my problem."

"On the contrary, you living here without lifting a finger to help _is_ your problem."

"Hey- hey Cent! I really don't want you guys to fight- again. Yes, she's a little lazy, but she means well and she's, y'know, my _sister_! The same sister who saved me and gave me these awesome powers, remember? We owe her a lot," Two said.

"With all due respect Two, you are the only Intoner I serve and I've just about had it with cleaning up after your sister! Especially since all of our servants mysteriously disappeared, wouldn't be surprised if she used them for whatever freakshow attraction she's working on."

"Wait...'freakshow' a-are you saying that's how you see me?" Two asked, tears welling up in her eyes.

"No-no-no! Of course not my love, that's not what I meant at all!" He shot up out of his chair to hold onto Two. "You are the one bright spot in my life. I was talking about those sorry excuses of soldiers your sister keeps making."

"How dare you mock my dolls! " Three hissed, only to be completely ignored by Two and Cent who were completely absorbed by each other.

She sniffled. "R-Really? You mean it?"

"Absolutely. My love for you is unquestionable."

"Awww Cent! You always know just what to say to make my heart flutter!"

Three rolled her eyes, both at Cent for his brain-numbing hokey lines and at Two for eating his words up like it was fine dining. ' _Those two disgust me.'_

"—Excuse me! Lady Two! Lady Two!" All of a sudden, a soldier came running up to them, abruptly ending the moment the two were sharing. "We've received word from the messenger that the Intoner Zero and the Demon Slayer have arrived in the Land of Sands! They are in the midst of attacking our base at the Surface Ruins!"

"Oh, they sure came back quick," Two said.

"And what of it? Our forces there will deal with them," Cent said.

"...Not necessarily. Most of our soldiers have been allocated to the shrine as per Lady Three's request and based on the reports given by the messenger, we've already accumulated a great deal of casualties."

"What?! No wonder you could keep on making those monster soldiers. Three, what were you thinking?"

"I needed them."

"So you went behind my back and messed up the entire war strategy I drew up?!"

"It would've failed regardless."

"Now listen here-"

"Cent, please don't start this."

"How can I not? Your sister is the one who's trying to get us killed all so she can play doll with her inbred demons."

"Don't say that! Look, he doesn't mean it Three, he's just upset right now."

Three stood up. "Your boyfriend sucks." With that she disappeared back into the basement.

Frustrated, Cent pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay, how about we just re-allocate the soldiers back to their original positions?"

"It'll take a few days to locate and transfer the soldiers across the desert. Not to mention the..."

As Cent and the soldier were going back and forth on a makeshift war strategy that was bound to fall apart anyways with how little time they had to preapre, Two decided she would be the one to step up. "I'll just handle them myself."

Cent dismissed her almost immediately. "Enough Two, this is no time for jokes. We have soldiers for a reason."

She clung to Cent's arm. "Come ooooon! It'll be a chance for us to get away from the shrine, like a little date! I'll kill them in like five seconds, and then we can get some take out from Besaid for dinner."

"Two, enough of that already. Everything I've done was to keep those two as far away from you as possible so I could protect you. To march right up to them and take them out so early would be-"

"-A perfect opportunity. I've already made my mind up about this. It'll be less of a headache for Three if I just get Zero and her boyfriend out of the way now so she can focus on her project and we won't have to worry about them infiltrating the shrine. Besides...I want to be the one who kills them!" She started grinning like a madwoman, revealing the row of razor-sharp teeth lining her mouth, not unlike a deadly shark. "I don't think I can contain my excitement any longer... I- I've been waiting so long for when I could finally rip their throats out!"

Her downright animalistic behavior lied in sharp contrast to her usual gentleness. Even Cent couldn't help be unsettled by her drastic shift in personality, he gulped down, trying his best to hold it together. "That's, uh, r-rather bold of you. Naturally, I'll support you every step of the way!"

"Of course you will! You're my wonderful boyfriend after all!" Snatching Cent's arm, she dragged him out of the shrine.

Meanwhile, in the depths of Two's shrine, Mikhail was kept under heavy chains that restrained him to the ground. He thought being trapped in a dark place away from his friends for days on end would be a nightmare, but what truly terrified him was whenever Three came to visit and interrogate him.

Although Three did little more than ask a few questions since she was far too lazy to torture him, what Mikhail saw whenever he looked into her heart was deeply unsettling to him. It was a black chasm that spiraled into oblivion, barely tethered by the shreds of humanity that otherwise kept her from turning into a heartless. Just being in the same room as her would send chills down his spine, and while he held out for long enough, he never knew which day would be his last.

"Greetings." Three approached him and dropped a large cut of meat just outside of his reach. "You've grown quite thin over the last few days. I suggest you indulge in my offerings, otherwise you'll end up a mere pile of dragon bones." She did this charade with him every time, bribing him with the promise of delicious meat in exchange for information on Riku.

"No! I keep telling you...you're never gonna make me say anything so just..." He started off strong but quickly tired out. "...just give it up already."

"Then I suppose this method of negotiation is no longer viable. You'd protect your friends 'till the very end."

"That's right! So just give it up already...and let me go...please."

"Absolutely not."

He gulped. "S...So are you gonna k- kill me now? 'Cause I'll fight back! I'll bite you and-"

"If I wanted to kill you, I would've done so already."

Mustering every last bit of his strength, he raised his head to her. "Then what do you want with me huh?! You've been keeping me here for so long, but my friends are gonna save me—I- I bet they'll be here any minute now just you wait! You better let me go now or you'll be sorry!"

Three was unfazed by the dragon's pleas, in fact, she was even amused by his defiance because she saw it as an opportunity to finally break him down. "...Are you not tired? How many days have passed, yet you still call for your 'friends' like an infant who cries for the mother that abandoned it? Are you not tired of trying to fool yourself already?"

"What're you talking about?! Th- They haven't abandoned me! They're looking for me, I know it, I just know it!"

"Believe me dragon, I know how you feel more than anyone. I've been abandoned too many times... and deep down you must feel some sort of resentment. After all, you're the most important member, you carry all of them, but they can't even bother to save you when you're the reason why they made it this far in the first place. Doesn't that make you feel angry?"

"That's not true at all! Yeah, maybe Zero calls me a dummy sometimes but-"

"But she's not here to save you, is she? Although perhaps she would've been here already if you were a powerful dragon like Michael."

"No way! You're wrong! Michael he's..."

_["Really. I'd never compare you two. Michael was amazing and you're just a dummy."]_

_["God, how'd you become such a fucking moron?"]_

With the seeds of doubt planted when she prodded at his insecurity, combined with Mikhail's already dwindling strength, he was beginning to second guess himself.

"Maybe...Maybe Zero wouldn't, but Riku...he'd never..."

"'He'd never abandon you?' And yet he's not here when you need him the most. In the end, I suppose you really weren't that important to him, he's likely long forgotten about you by now."

"Riku..."

She went over to him, caressing his scales. "Oh, you poor, foolish dragon. You've been hurt and abandoned by the people closest to you, but if you yield to me, if you close your eyes...I'll give you more power than you'll ever know. You'll become a dragon even greater than Michael. So I'll ask you once more, are you not tired _Mikhail_?"

Mikhail was tired, without any food to sustain him, he had no energy. He was tired of being alone, he was tired of being afraid, he was tired of trying to fight back and most of all, he was tired of waiting for his friends to come.

"Yeah..." He whimpered. "I'm...I'm so tired..."

She grinned. "Than I'll make sure you never feel exhausted again." Grabbing the piece of meat off the floor, she threw it to him. "But first, if you want to become a big, powerful dragon, you'll have to eat. You'll do that for me, won't you?"

"Yeah..." He gobbled up the piece of meat fast, not realizing how truly hungry he was. "Now what...how is this supposed to make me all big and strong?"

"Patience Mikhail." Three sat down across from him, then pulled out an old, thick book from the darkness. "Hm...do you like long stories?"

"Uh, sure I guess."

"Good. This story is a special one, it's about the greatest dragons who ever lived."

"Even...greater than Michael?"

"Yes, because this one was mighty enough to go against God himself."

**An Hour Earlier**

Following a week's long journey, Riku, Zero and the disciples finally arrived in the Land of Sands. There was more than enough daylight to burn, so they infiltrated a nearby desert town, expecting to be met with an army of soldiers.

However, the only soldiers so to speak were a few men scattered around, hardly an adequate display of the Land of Sand's military might. In fact, their first real obstacle wasn't soldiers or even heartless, but a pack of ferocious sandwolves that ganged up on them.

"These bastards, huh?" Zero pulled her sword out.

Riku summoned his keyblade as well, but the sandwolves became substantially less aggressive, playful even when they saw his oddly shaped blade in comparison to the standard fare. A few of them wagged their tails and pressed their chests against the ground.

"Hold on, I have a better idea to get rid of these guys," Riku waved his keyblade in front of the sandwolves. "Hey- hey! You want it? Then go and get it!" He threw his blade as far as he could in the opposite direction and sure enough, the sandwolves chased after it. A few minutes later he called his keyblade back, and they were in the clear.

"Now we can cross animal cruelty off the list," Zero scoffed.

"Is it not better to avoid unnecessary bloodshed?" Decadus asked.

"They're just gonna come back and bite us in the ass later. Should've killed those fuckers while we had the chance."

"Wooow. I'm starting to think you _like_ being pissed off for no reason," Dito said.

"Lady Zero is always upset over the smallest of things," Octa said.

"Perhaps there's an underlying reason," Decadus reasoned. "I read somewhere that women are prone to get irritable every month or so as part of a biological process."

"Yeah, but Zero's pissed off like every day. Waking up pisses her off, walking around pisses her off, fighting pisses her off... you get my point," Dito said.

"Maybe because I'm traveling with you dense motherfuckers! And I'm not pissed off ALL the time so shut the fuck up!" Zero snapped.

"You're kinda proving my point there. I bet you can't even go a whole day without your short fuse blowing up."

"You know what? Fine. I'll do it, but once I prove you wrong, you're going to shut up for the rest of the week."

He smirked. "So we're doing this? You're starting off with a pretty big wager too. Alright, then if you lose, which you probably will..." Dito went back and forth in his head on the proper payback for Zero until eventually landing on something that fit the bill. "Heh, got it! If you lose, you have to make out with Octa in front of everyone!"

"How voyeuristic..." Decadus said under his breath.

"Ohh, you're surely mistaken Dito, any form of intimacy with me would be immensely pleasurable for the Lady. I suspect she'd want to lose immediately if I were the prize!" Octa said.

"No, I'd actually rather slam my head against a wall, but it's not like I'll lose so it doesn't matter," Zero said.

"Y-You don't need to sound so disgusted..."

"Looks like we got a deal then, you're on the hook until tomorrow morning," Dito said.

"This'll be easy, just watch."

Without the typical hoards of soldiers to get in their way, they were plowing through the desert town. Dito was right, fighting was usually a source of frustration for Zero and since there weren't any enemies to enrage her, she was confident the rest of the day would be easy on her nerves.

"Perhaps Two and Three won't pose nearly as much of a threat as we thought if this first military base is anything to go by," Decadus said.

"I don't think so. They probably moved all their soldiers closer to the shrine to protect themselves," Riku said. "And it's not like crossing this desert won't be a challenge all on its own."

"So basically smooth sailing and then we're screwed when we reach the shrine. Sounds about right," Dito said.

"Not to mention they're holding Mikhail captive. I can only imagine what t- torture they're putting him through ohh...if only we could trace places," Decadus said.

"You think they turned him into a heartless or something?"

Riku and Zero turned back to Dito.

"What? I'm just saying. That didn't cross your guys' mind already?"

Zero shook her head. "That can't happen though, right? He's not a human so..."

"He has a heart so it's possible. We just need to hurry up to the shrine," Riku said.

"Great so if that dummy ends up getting turned into a heartless then..." Zero could feel Dito's shit-eating grin growing wider the more she lost her composure so she had to dial it back for her sake. "Then...uh, w- we can overcome it! Ha ha...!"

"That didn't sound forced," Riku said.

"...Okay, then how about this? Leeeeet's go guys! We'll defeat the Intoners and save my dragon! Woo hoo, I believe in us!"

"That was way, waaay worse," Dito said.

"Ooohhh, this second-hand embarrassment is so ... nnnghhh..."

Zero had to keep her murderous thoughts to herself for the time being, but she figured that would at least be the worst of it. Unfortunately, once they reached the gates that lead out of the desert town, they were in for a rude awakening.

"Heya guys, long time no see, right? How's everyone liking the Land of Sands so far? It's a little tourist-y but a perfect place for a honeymoon getaway, wouldn't you agree?" Leaning against the gates was Two herself, just about the last person they expected to encounter so early into the Land of Sands. She waved and smiled at them as if to be friendly, but her face was of one looking to murder.

"...She's already showing herself, huh?" Riku said.

"At least this makes finding the Intoners easier if they're just going to come to us," Zero said.

"Well, I figured I'd just kill you guys now so you don't cause us trouble later. That sound good?"

"Not if we destroy you first, you demon!" The sight of Two alone ignited the quiet rage within Decadus, and he rushed to her before all the others. "You will pay for your crimes against Lady Four! This is your JUSTICE!"

Right when Decadus' fist was inches away from punching Two's face, she grabbed hold of his arm, absorbing all of his momentum, then tossed him aside like he was nothing. While it appeared to be a light toss, Decadus flew straight through the thick, stone wall behind them.

Two cracked her knuckles and neck. "Whew! That was a great warm-up. So you guys ready to get started?"

"Yeah no, the rest of you guys can handle this," Dito said.

"Agreed. My frail bones simply couldn't endure that type of wear and tear," Octa said.

"Then make yourselves useful for once and find her disciple. She didn't come alone, he's probably waiting around so he can summon her daemons once we beat her ass."

"Yeah, yeah, we got it Z!"

"Ooh, nice observation, but I won't be needing any extra help to defeat you two." Not only did Two possess monstrous strength, but her nimble body was incredibly fast. She ran up to Riku and Zero's position in just a few seconds, nearly catching them off guard, but they split before she could cleave anyone with her sword. "Ah, you're both way faster than before! I'm almost impressed!"

Zero came at Two from the side and clashed blades with her. "Since you keep talking so much, what do you know about my dragon?!"

"Don't worry about that big guy, my sister's taking extra good care of him. I'd be more worried about yourself honestly." She easily shattered Zero's defense and was about to go in for a devastating strike, but she had to spin around to block Riku's attack. "And you're that demon slayer boy! Look at that cute wittle angwy face you're making, awww is someone still mad about Four dying? That's so pathetic!"

"Shut the hell up!" He pulled back to shoot a Blizzaga spell at her that she dodged so fast it nearly hit Zero instead.

"Watch where you're aiming!"

"Sorry, she's just moving too fast for me to get a hit on her!"

"Then you should use the Intoner's song! Mine won't be charged up for a while, but you've been fighting all those heartless, so yours should be ready!"

"Sure it'll work?"

"It's worth a shot! I'll cover you!"

"Nice, dinner AND a show, I like it!" Two exclaimed.

While Zero engaged with Two, Riku gathered some distance. ' _This past week I've trained with the Intoner's song it still hasn't activated for me yet. I don't know if I even can pull it off this time around.'_ He took in a few deep breaths. ' _Don't worry about that. I can do this!'_

**Verse ?**

_Ok... ok...yeah, it's Riku out here, this one's for the evil flower!_

_Yo, you out here growing inside but I'm gonna need that POWER!_

_Uh um, don't have a third verse never really got this far_

_But I don't need it 'cause I already stacked up all these sick bars!_

"..."

"..."

Riku held his head down after showing no signs of his Intoner mode awakening. "That was a complete failure..."

"Wait-wait-wait...so THAT supposed to be a poor attempt at an Intoner's song? Wow, that sounded soooo bad! How embarrassing for you!" Two burst out in laughter from the sheer absurdity of Riku's 'song', and Zero would've done the same if she wasn't locked in a life or death battle.

Thinking Two was distracted, Zero took the opportunity to try and slash her, but she reacted as quickly as ever, immediately blocking the attack. "You're gonna have to be a lot quicker than that to catch me off guard." She let out a yawn. "You know, this is getting kinda boring, how about I show you how a real Intoner's song sounds and I can wrap things up already."

**Verse 1-2**

_A drifting life cries to the heavens,_

_I see petals —_

Although Riku failed to invoke the Flower's abilities through his song, it did help him in the most unexpected of ways. His distinct voice caught the attention of the same pack of sandwolves from earlier and just as Two began her song of ruin, they burst out from the empty structures and started running around all over the place.

"What the- where'd all these stupid wolves come from?!" Two swung her sword around at the sandwolves that were ganging up on her.

With the sandwolves keeping Two's hands busy, Zero was able to land a direct hit, the edge of her blade tearing through her back. At the same time, Riku cast bind on Two, before she even had a chance to dodge the golden chains wrapped around her entire body, rendering her immobile.

"GAAHHH!" Try as she might, Two couldn't break out of the chains. "Grrr...don't get cocky! As soon as Cent comes he's gonna—"

"He's gonna _what_?" Dito and Octa returned towing a tied-up Cent in their arms, once they joined up with the others, they dumped him on the ground besides Two. Cent was all bloody and looked like he was beaten within an inch of his life. Which was still a surprising amount of restraint for Dito, but he had other plans on his mind for him that would be far worse than death.

"Ceeent! You were supposed to heroically save me in the nick of time!" Two whined.

"My deepest apologies Two...I- I was blindsided, those cowards attacked me from behind..." He muttered, barely able to maintain his consciousness.

Two let out a disgruntled sigh in defeat. "Fine...I guess you win. So what do you even want with us? If you're trying to kill us you haven't been doing a great job at it."

Dito rubbed his hands together. "I vote we torture them for dirt on her sister until they're begging to get killed!"

"No, we're not doing that. Two, you're going to take us to your shrine and help us save Mikhail, then I'll seal both you and your sister's powers so you'll never abuse the darkness again," Riku said.

"Pssht, and why would I ever go along with that? Betray my sister AND get stabbed in the back when you guys are done? No way! Sounds like a lose-lose situation to me."

"It's more like a shut up and follow us or we kill you on the spot situation," Zero said.

"Oooh I'm so scared. I mean, we could go for a round two if you're not afraid of another butt whooping."

"Yeah yeah, says the girl who's tied up," Dito said. "Anyways, you guys sure it's even a good idea to bring them with us? They could fuck us over and leave us stranded in the middle of the desert."

"Don't worry about her breaking free from those chains, they're made of my magic." Riku looked down Two with that piercing gaze of his, underneath his cool demeanor was a quiet rage he could barely contain. "I'm the only one who can release you from those chains, so the faster you make up your mind, the faster you'll be free from them once you take us to the shrine. I'm extending you this kindness now, but I swear...if you murder someone like that again, I won't hesitate to cut you down. I've tried to give you Intoners the benefit of the doubt, but what you did to Four was unforgivable."

Seeing as how she was getting backed up into a corner, Two reverted back into her more threatening persona and she bared her sharp teeth at him "You're _not_ getting away with this! I'll rip your goddamn spine in half before you ever step foot in MY shrine!"

Two's outburst spurred Zero to brandish her sword. "You'll be long dead before that happens. The second you try anything, my sword will be in your chest."

"I...I don't believe we have any other choice," Cent hacked out a mouthful of blood before continuing. "Wha...Whatever happens, I'll be by your side always. We'll get through this together...I promise you, my love."

"Oh Cent! You don't have to push yourself for me, I'll be okay."

"But being able to see your angelic face makes all the pain worth it, I rather—"

Zero kicked him in the head to knock him unconscious. "Then it's settled. Decadus, grab Cent and wait...where is he anyway?"

"Remember, he got thrown into that wall a while ago. In a rather barbaric way too might I add," Octa said.

"Probably made him all 'excited' and crap though..." Dito said under his breath.

"Decadus, if you're still alive then get over here already. We don't have all day," Zero said.

Not long after Zero called for him, Decadus pathetically crawled out from under a pile of rubble then dragged himself over to them. "...I- I apologize for my absence Lady Zero...I kept blacking out for the longest time, I believe I've suffered a concussion...ungh...I insist I get thrown through another wall immediately as proper p- punishment...ooooh!"

"Decadus is still Decadus, huh. You and Four sure did belong together," Two said.

"Quiet! You are not allowed to fondly reminisce over Lady Four!"

"Oooh so the backbone's included now?"

"I'd like to see how much of a backbone you have left after I'm through with you!"

"Hey, calm down Decadus. We need her to take us to her shrine. I'm with you, but just bear with it for a little while until we get there," Riku said.

"...As you wish."

"Pick up Cent and we'll get out of here," Zero said.

Riku adjusted the chains on Two so they'd fit around her wrists like a pair of shackles then they left the desert town to venture out into the greater desert.

"How far is your shrine from here anyways?" Riku asked.

"It'll take a few days to get there on foot but it'll be way faster if we use my daemons! How 'bout it?"

"So you can kill us with it? No thanks."

"Tch...that one's off the list." She mumbled.

"God, this is gonna be brutal! This sand's getting all up in my clothes too. No way this doesn't piss you off, Z," Dito said.

"Like I'm falling for that. Heh, this day's gonna be over soon and then you can finally eat shit~"

He rolled his eyes. "If you even last that long."

"Hm? Are you guys playing a game or something?" Two asked.

"That's none of your—"

"Yeah actually," Dito cut in. "I made a bet that she couldn't get pissed off for a whole day. She seems to be holding up pretty surprisingly."

"What happens if she loses?

"She has to make out with Octa in front of everyone."

"Oh, that's gross."

"I know right? It's the perfect punishment!"

"I'm still here..." Octa said.

"You got a pretty devious mind. I like it!"

"Well, I'm glad someone appreciates my talents. So you got any ideas?"

"This is Zero we're talking about so if she hasn't lost it already then she's probably gonna boil over soon. What usually pisses her off the most?"

"Uhhh there's so much it's hard to narrow it down...she hates whenever Mikhail says something dumb oh- and whenever she gets sidelined by-"

"You're just going to tell her that? I'm not mad... I'm just wondering why you're suicidal all of a sudden," Zero said.

"Hmm...so you hate whenever Mikhail says something stupid? It truly is sad what happened to him, he used to be such a great dragon too."

"Doesn't seem like it to me," Dito said.

"...Drop this already," Zero said

"Aw sore subject for you? Must be why you let this demon slayer boy follow around because he's a replacement for Michael. Hopefully you don't lead him to his death too~"

"Hey, she told you to drop it so lay off on her already!" Riku said.

"It's fine. I don't even care." She turned away from the others and walked ahead, showing an unprecedented level of restraint.

"It looks like it's already getting dark, let's just call it a night. I saw a town up ahead where we can rest at."

_With the Second Intoner and her disciple under their thumb,_

_It seemed like the day had been won._

_But in the depths of Two's shrine lied the dragon Mikhail,_

_Who called for his friends to no avail._

_He was alone with the Third Intoner he once despised,_

_Forced to play a part in the world's foretold demise._

**Flowers for the Dead**

* * *

Post Chapter Memes

Off-season Halloween comic- Lol yes I know my handwritng sucks 😔😔

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a WHILE, really sorry for the late update!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


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